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Civilians belonging to a border-watch group will stage a vigil along portions of the Mexican border in Cochise County this weekend, looking for illegal crossers.

Members of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps' Cochise County chapter will muster Friday through Sunday afternoon, said Chris Simcox, national head of the organization, which is an arm of the Minuteman Project.

Simcox said he could not predict how many volunteers will turn out.

"We do at least one (muster) a month in every chapter in every state," he said.

Typically, volunteers sit in their vehicles or on lawn chairs, with binoculars and cell phones, watching for illegal immigrants trying to cross from Mexico into the United States.

Any sightings are to be called in to the U.S. Border Patrol. Minuteman volunteers are under strict orders not to try to accost or stop anyone from crossing.

And while volunteers in Arizona are able to carry sidearms lawfully, they also are under strict orders not to use their weapons.

Simcox said the volunteers will deploy along some of the same border locations where the group's observers staged their vigils during monthlong exercises in April and October — an area between Naco and the Huachuca Mountains.

Retired accountant Jim Gilchrist of Aliso Viejo, Calif., started recruiting volunteers via the Internet to join the Minuteman Project about a year ago, linking up with Simcox, who headed up a small border-watch group in Southern Arizona.

Since their April vigil near Naco, the project has gone nationwide in scope, with chapters organized in about 23 states and others in development, Simcox said.

Among other things, the organization also has started to protest and videotape sites in several cities where illegal immigrants gather to be hired for day-labor jobs.

"We've shut down numerous sites in Houston, Herndon, Va., and Phoenix," Simcox said.

Another arm of the project, created by Gilchrist, is "Operation Spotlight." It will focus on gathering evidence of workplace violations of federal immigration, tax or employment laws. Gilchrist is an independent congressional candidate in Tuesday's special election in Southern California.

"We're not going away," Simcox said. "We're doubling our efforts."

We do at least one (muster) a month in every chapter in every state. … We're not going away. We're doubling our efforts.