PALOMINAS, Ariz. -- The Civil Homeland Defense organization of Arizona formally took charge of the Minuteman Project yesterday, reassigning volunteers and designating new supervisors to oversee efforts to prevent migrants from illegally entering the United States.

"This project was just the beachhead for a nationwide effort to secure this nation's borders," said Bob Wright, a Hobbs, N.M., businessman who helped organize the Minuteman volunteers and is coordinating the CDH effort.

The border vigil proved that "if citizens in lawn chairs can secure the border, the U.S. government can, too," said Minuteman organizer James T. Gilchrist, a retired California certified public accountant.

Yesterday in Washington, Sen. Wayne Allard, Colorado Republican, said the government should consider deputizing private citizens, such as the Minuteman Patrol, and better use local law enforcement and state officials to help secure the most porous parts of the U.S.-Mexico line.

"I wonder sometimes if maybe we're not looking too much to a federal solution," Mr. Allard told Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing.

"I happen to believe that those people down along the border that formed the Minutemen organization have some real concerns," Mr. Allard said.

Gaining the attention of Congress was one of the project's main goals, said Mr. Gilchrist, who next week is heading to Washington with co-organizer Chris Simcox, the publisher of a Tombstone, Ariz., newspaper, to testify before the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus...