Grand Chief Thunderbird IV

Angel Freytez thought the offer was too good to be true but admitted that it did have an intriguing twist.

It went like this:

An agent of a group calling itself the Kaweah Indian Nation was contacting churches in Nebraska towns, selling tribal membership rights to illegal immigrants.

For an enrollment fee of several hundred dollars, the agent said, the new members would be able to travel freely in the United States as part of the tribe.

They would purportedly be protected against deportation and eventually could attain U.S. citizenship.

Soon, Freytez, a spokesman for the Nebraska Mexican-American Commission, learned enough to issue a fraud alert warning the state's Spanish-speaking community not to fall prey.

He is spreading the message on Spanish-language radio stations. The Nebraska Attorney General's Office also is investigating.

Leaders of the Kaweah defended the offer to The World-Herald, saying that the tribe's descendants extend into parts of Latin America and that American Indians predate the border that separates the United States from Mexico. Thus, by birthright, the leaders say, many immigrants can enroll as Indians.

Malcolm Webber, also known as Grand Chief Thunderbird IV, said, however, that tribal leaders were investigating reports that an agent might have been charging more than the standard enrollment fee of $100 per family. Webber, who was reached in Wichita, Kan., said: "There's always a bad egg in the basket."

A spokeswoman with the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Service said the tribe's offer could not result in citizenship for illegal immigrants, whatever the cost. The Kaweah is not a federally recognized tribe.

Local immigration advocates said the offer reflects a broader problem: a vulnerable population so desperate for legal status that it becomes susceptible to questionable offers.

"People are desperate for legal status and a decent job," said Luis Lucar, a leader of Schuyler's Latino community. "It makes them believe in the unbelievable."

He and other advocates expect opportunists to surface since Congress rejected legislation that would have provided many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States — up to 65,000 of them in Nebraska — with a path to citizenship.

Since June, the Texas Attorney General's Office has fielded five consumer complaints against the Kaweah, said Paco Felici of the Texas Attorney General's Office.

Corinna Scheurich, an attorney with the South Texas Civil Rights Project, has been investigating the Kaweah Tribe's offer and has distributed warnings. Some people, Scheurich said, reportedly have lost up to $2,500.

In Nebraska, Kaweah enrollment forms have circulated in cities including Grand Island, Fremont, Schuyler and Lincoln.

Freytez said the tribe's enrollment fee offered to Nebraskans ranged upward of $330.

"We are 100 percent sure this is a scam," Freytez said. "It is an especially sad story because they are going through the churches and making believers think it is a blessing from God."

Sylvia Flores, whose husband is pastor of an evangelical church in Fremont, said her Latino congregation was seeking to verify the offer. "If it's good, we want people to benefit," she said.

The Rev. Anthony Espinosa of St. Augustine Catholic Church in Schuyler said members of his congregation were approached outdoors — uninvited — after a service. Espinoza later cautioned his parish members not to participate.

"There is logic behind it," he said, "but it's wrong because somebody is making money off it and it's a fraud, a false promise. It's not real."

The federal government does not recognize the Kaweah Indian Nation or its right to sovereignty, Scheurich said. Its application to be recognized as a federal tribe was denied in the 1980s, she said.

She said she is aware of only one federally recognized tribe, the Kickapoo, that has the right to dual citizenship in the United States and Mexico. That tribe has proved that its tribal lands cross the border, Scheurich said.

Even if the Kaweah tribe were federally recognized, adoption of adult immigrants without tribal blood ties would not be a route to citizenship, said Marilu Cabrera, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service.

She said Canadian-born American Indians have gained legal status in the United States, but they had to be of the tribal lineage.

Kaweah High Chief Manuel Urbina, reached at the tribe's base in Wichita, said Mexicans and Central Americans who are accepted as tribe members are protected as American Indians against deportation.

He said the tribe is seeking federal recognition, which he asserts would then allow for citizenship.

Asked why more undocumented immigrants weren't clamoring for membership if it was a route to citizenship, Urbina said: "There's a lot of things that are impossible. But they still come true."