Kansas Tribe Raided in Immigration Probe

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By ROXANA HEGEMAN – 3 hours ago

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The leader of an unrecognized American Indian tribe was arrested Thursday in a raid by federal authorities investigating claims that the group sold tribal memberships to immigrants with the promise that joining would provide U.S. citizenship.

Agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Social Security Administration's Office of Inspector General raided the Kaweah Indian Nation's two Wichita offices and arrested Malcolm L. Webber, also known as Grand Chief Thunderbird IV, according to the U.S. attorney's office and the immigration agency.

ICE said it is investigating whether Webber, 69, illegally sold tribal memberships to both legal and illegal immigrants under the misconception that the documents provided immediate U.S. citizenship. Becoming a member of a tribe gives no protection against deportation, authorities have said.

"Webber has been arrested, and we anticipate federal charges will be filed in that case," said Jim Cross, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office.

Webber is not an American Indian, and his group, which calls itself the Kaweah Indian Nation, is not a legitimate tribe, Cross said. The search warrants were for anything related to sales of tribal memberships, Cross said.

No charges had been filed by Thursday afternoon. Webber was being held at the Sedgwick County jail.

A woman who answered the phone at Webber's Wichita home Thursday said the family would have no comment, and tribal spokesman Manuel Urbina could not be reached on his cell phone.

The Kaweah Indian Nation was denied federal recognition in 1984. Its suspected pitch to immigrants became public when the Nebraska Mexican-American Commission posted a warning on its Web site. The commission said that church members from several Nebraska cities reported being approached by tribal representatives.

"I'm just impressed that the arrest took place so quickly," said Angel Freytez, spokesman for the Nebraska Mexican-American Commission. "Regardless of (immigrants') status in the U.S., we cannot allow other people to profit from the drama and tragedy of others."

No tribal members could be found at the group's headquarters Thursday, where agents were going through cardboard boxes of records. Webber has declined requests for comment since news of the multistate investigation surfaced last month.

In the past, Urbina has denied that the tribe, which purports to have 10,000 members nationwide, was doing anything illegal. He claimed that others who were not part of the tribe were selling tribal documents.

The tribe's secretary, a woman from El Salvador, and her Guatemalan husband were charged Aug. 15 in Wichita with federal immigration violations that prosecutors said were linked to the case.

Days later, the Texas attorney general's office sued Webber, the Kaweah Indian Nation and two tribal members. The lawsuit alleged they fraudulently sold memberships by claiming that tribal members could get a Social Security number, protection from deportation and U.S. citizenship once the tribe was federally recognized.

In a 1984 ruling, the Bureau of Indian Affairs found that the Kaweah Indian Nation Inc. did not exist before 1980, when it was formed under Webber's leadership. The bureau called it an urban Indian interest group from Porterville, Calif., that had no relation to the aboriginal Kaweah Indians.

The bureau finding also noted Webber's arrest in Oatman, Ariz., on a sex-related charge involving two young girls. He was convicted in 1982 of indecent liberty with a child and sentenced to one year in prison, according to records and news reports.

Associated Press writer Oskar Garcia in Omaha, Neb., contributed to this report.