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Unrecognized tribe accused in immigration scam claims sovereignty
Prosecutors contend Webber and his agents, in an elaborate nationwide scheme spanning several states, sold tribal memberships in the Kaweah Indian Nation to immigrants under the guise that the memberships would make them U.S. citizens.
Neither Webber nor tribe spokesman Manuel Urbina have discussed the case since the charges were filed Sept. 7. However, in an interview the week before the raid, Urbina denied that the tribe told illegal immigrants that membership would protect them from being deported.
Anderson told the court that such public statements were intended to let others know what they should say when questioned by authorities.
The federal government does not recognize the Kaweah Indian Nation as an American Indian tribe. The tribal memberships did not make the buyers U.S. citizens, which would allow them to get driver’s licenses, Social Security cards and other documents.
“The government’s overwhelming evidence indicates that the defendant is preying on the most vulnerable and desperate in American society, taking not only their money but raising in some the false hope that his medicine water will somehow confer upon them United States citizenship,” prosecutors said in court papers.
The hearing offered the first public glimpse into the government’s case, and the extent to which the Kaweah allegedly portrayed itself as a sovereign nation with purported ambassadors to Mexico, Canada and other countries. The Kaweah Indian Nation purported to have at least 10 tribes in Kansas, with others located across the nation. It also had its own police officers.
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