Founder and President of the Minuteman Project - "The Minuteman Project -- the controversial civilian patrol that came to prominence a decade ago -- is riding out of retirement in a bid to help tackle the illegal immigration crisis at the Mexico border. The group, which patrolled parts of the 2,000-mile border from 2005-2010, acting as unarmed and unsanctioned eyes and ears of the Border Patrol, is trying to recruit a force of thousands to help keep illegal immigrants from making their way into the United States from Mexico. Minutemen founder and president Jim Gilchrist said preparation for "Operation Normandy" will take place over the next 10 months as the dormant group seeks to recruit and organize as many as 3,500 volunteers. "We are coming because we no longer trust that this government knows how to handle this issue," Gilchrist told FoxNews.com. "This is going to dwarf the original Minuteman Project and I expect a number of militia groups to join." Gilchrist accused the Obama administration of not taking illegal immigration seriously, noting the nearly 60,000 unaccompanied children, mostly from Central America, have been apprehended along the border since Oct. 1. Separately, more than 39,000 immigrants, primarily mothers and children, have also been arrested in that same period. The massive influx has come despite a doubling to more than 21,000 in the number of Border Patrol agents over the past decade. Gilchrist said the increase is welcomed, but faulted the agency for deploying the new hires in the wrong places." Jim Gilchrist founded the multi-ethnic Minuteman Project on October 1, 2004 after years of frustrated efforts trying to get a neglectful U.S. government to simply enforce existing immigration laws. Jim is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and recipient of the Purple Heart award for wounds sustained while serving with an infantry unit in Vietnam, 1968-1969. Mr. Gilchrist is a passionate defender of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and an avid supporter of law enforcement organizations. - http://minutemanproject.com/