About 38,000 migrants have been placed in the federal Migrant Protection Protocol (MPP) program, often referred to as Remain in Mexico, since it began in January, the Wall Street Journal reports. MPP sends migrants who enter the U.S. illegally, or who appear at official places of entry along the U.S. border seeking asylum, to Mexico to await future U.S. court dates. Most of them are from El Salvador, Guatemala or Honduras. The Trump administration started MPP to reduce the number of migrants traveling as families to ask for U.S. asylum. Before MPP, nearly all such groups were released inside the U.S. to await court dates.

MPP has grown rapidly and its cases are taking priority over those of the roughly 975,000 migrants living in the U.S. who await decisions on their immigration claims, some for years. “It looks like we’re doing all MPP cases all the time,” says Judge Lee O’Connor in San Diego immigration courtroom after telling a man fighting deportation to wait six months for his next hearing. After initially hearing most MPP cases in San Diego and El Paso, the Trump administration has expanded the program to Laredo and the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. U.S. Customs and Border Protection is setting up large tents in those areas for MPP hearings that will start in mid-September. Migrants will enter from Mexico for the day and talk with immigration judges elsewhere via videoconference. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan said the MPP program offers asylum seekers a chance at a much faster resolution of their case. “Instead of a five-year process or more, we can see results in a matter of months,” he said. Ashley Tabaddor, president of the National Association of Immigration Judges, said her members are being told to hear 80 to 100 MPP cases in a session that lasts a few hours.