http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Immigration-Indian-Tribes.html

Complaints Mount Against Indian Tribe

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: August 21, 2007

Filed at 11:21 p.m. ET

HARLINGEN, Texas (AP) -- The attorney general of Texas has added the state
to complaints that an Indian tribe sold memberships to illegal immigrants
in a fraudulent scheme that promised protection from U.S. immigration laws.

In a lawsuit filed Monday against the federally unrecognized Kaweah Indian
Nation Inc. of Wichita, Kan., Attorney General Greg Abbott's office accused
the group of taking as much as $400 each from an unknown number of
immigrants for the guarantee of a Social Security number and a "Certificate
of Citizenship" card that supposedly would bring protection from
deportation proceedings.

The tribe told immigrants the card also would be good for U.S. citizenship
if the Kaweah nation gained federal recognition, Abbott said. The lawsuit
seeks to stop what he alleges to be misleading recruitment and calls for a
fine of up to $20,000 for each violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade
Practices Act.

"In reality, the card is legally ineffective and does not alter the
purchaser's immigration status," Abbott said.

Abbott's lawsuit comes amid reports that the tribe has complaints against
it from at least five states and is being investigated by a U.S. attorney
in Kansas.

Last week, the tribe's secretary, a woman from El Salvador, and her
Guatemalan husband were charged in Wichita with federal immigration
violations in what prosecutors called a multistate immigration scam.

Immigration authorities have said becoming a member of a tribe gives no
protection against deportation. A lawyer for the Washington-based National
Congress of American Indians has called the Kaweahs "a total sham."

The federal Bureau of Indian Affairs denied the Kaweah group recognition in
1985, saying it was not a real tribe. A Kaweah tribe did exist once but is
unrelated to the one that applied for recognition.

The Kaweah Indian Nation said it was unaware of the lawsuit until contacted
by The Associated Press at the tribe's Wichita headquarters. Webber's
daughter, Jennifer Middlebrook, said her father does not take media calls.

"I know a lot of it is a misunderstanding because we are not doing anything
wrong," Middlebrook said. "Everything we are doing here is legal and to
benefit everybody in the tribe."

She referred further comment to Manuel Urbina, the tribe's spokesman and
high chief. He did not immediately return a phone message Tuesday.

Tom Kelley, a spokesman for Abbott, said it was unclear how many violations
there were in Texas or how many people had joined the tribe.

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Associated Press writer Roxana Hegeman in Wichita, Kan., contributed to
this report.