Texas billboard targets immigrant women in need

AUSTIN (KTRK) -- A controversial billboard in Austin, TX, has upset many residents and law enforcement is asking for it to be taken down.

The billboard says, "Undocumented immigrant? Before you get deported, get a sugar daddy."

An undercover sergeant with the Austin Police Department's human trafficking vice unit said the advertisement is dangerous.

"I was very disgusted by what I was seeing," the officer reported to KXAN. "To think that somebody would do that is just a very low life individual who would put that up there. These young ladies, maybe they haven't been in American that long and they don't know how it goes, and seeing that on the billboards and going hey, maybe that's something I ought to look at trying to do, and the next thing you know, they're in a world they can't get out of."

The billboard directs people to visit ArrangementFinders.com, a matchmaking website for "mutually beneficial arrangements" centered on trading money for intimacy.

The undercover officer said the ad goes beyond just an immigration issue and could lead to a series of exploitative crimes.

"These young girls, it's from 12-25 to 20, still they're in that range where they can become vulnerable and have someone take advantage of them," the officer said. "This could increase the likelihood of a young female becoming a victim of prostitution, sexual assault, murder, there's no telling how far this could go.

"I think the billboard should be taken down immediately. There no reason that billboard should be up there."