VAN HORN, Texas — Texas state troopers deployed to the border in remote West Texas to serve as backup to the overstretched Border Patrol are overwhelmed responding to the increasing number of illegal migrants who try to outrun them.

The Texas Department of Public Safety has rerouted more than 1,000 officers from their normal duties to the border since March, when the number of people illegally crossing from Mexico into the United States began to spike across the state. West Texas, normally the quietest place along the state’s 1,250-mile shared border with Mexico, is being inundated with groups of people crossing, all of whom are trying to evade capture, law enforcement told the Washington Examiner.