The operation is occurring at a time when illegal immigration is at the center of a growing national debate because of efforts in Congress to revamp immigration laws.
The group says it has 1,000 volunteers in Arizona alone to mount round-the-clock shifts for the next 30 days in an area used heavily by illegal immigrants and smugglers.
At a rally kicking off the effort at an Arizona ranch yesterday, politicians and activists opposing illegal immigration gave speeches calling for more border control.
About 200 people attended the event. Don Goldwater, a Republican candidate for Arizona governor and nephew of the late senator Barry Goldwater, said he had a message for President Bush.
''Build us that wall now," Goldwater said, referring to a measure that would add a 700-mile barrier along the border.
He promised that if elected, he would put illegal immigrants in a tent city on the border and use their labor to build the wall.
Minuteman chapters also began monthlong patrols yesterday in border areas in Texas, New Mexico, California, and Washington.
Weeklong patrols are planned in New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont. Minuteman groups have conducted small operations in Arizona and several other border areas in recent months; they also staged monthlong patrols in October, including one in the same area as the group's debut mission last April in southern Arizona.
Group members spent the month watching a small stretch of border in Arizona and reporting any illegal immigrants to the Border Patrol. The Minutemen did not detain anyone.
The initial patrol created a number of disagreements, with civil rights groups and the Border Patrol saying they feared the potential for violence that had been created by the presence of armed civilians on the border.
Instead, the group's general discipline and nonviolent patrol activity earned it credibility in some quarters and attracted both public and some political support.
Still, their efforts are not welcomed by all.
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