The Executive Office for Immigration Review says there are now 500,051 pending immigration cases in the agency’s 59 courts.

The backlog has been steadily rising in recent years as the number of unaccompanied children and people traveling as families have been caught crossing the Mexican border illegally in recent years. Since 2011 more than 200,000 cases have been added to the court’s docket and the backlog likely will keep rising.

More than 51,000 people traveling as families and more than 43,000 unaccompanied children, mostly from Honduras, El Salvador or Guatemala, have been caught crossing the border illegally since the start of the budget year in October.