Here’s Sacramento’s plan to stop sex trafficking at places acting as massage businesses

Facing what it calls a proliferation of modern-day brothels that often victimize women of Asian descent, city officials on Tuesday passed a law cracking down on illegitimate massage parlors that act as fronts for human sex trafficking.

As concerns rise about forced prostitution under the guise of a legitimate massage business, the Sacramento City Council voted unanimously to require a special business permit with operating standards for massage businesses, notably with provisions to help women who been forced into the sex business, rather than criminalize them.

“This is intended to help people who are being victimized,” said Councilman Eric Guerra, who pursued the ordinance along with a handful of groups focused on women’s rights, safety and health. “It’s modern-day slavery. The people who are wrapped up into it can’t get out.”

Guerra and city officials said the ordinance is similar to steps taken in other counties that make it easier to inspect and close illegal businesses. The code allows city inspections, bans anyone from living at the business site and requires the lobby to be visible from the street. It also requires posting of information about human trafficking at the site.

The new rule will force violators to shut their business for five years at that site so that bad operators cannot open a new business under a different business name. The ordinance should help improve commercial strip malls where some of these parlors are located, Guerra said.

He said his intention with the ordinance also is to support the legitimate massage industry by eliminating bad actors.

The new permit would involve a fee structure, with funds going to organizations that provide service for victimized women.

The initially proposed ordinance prohibited massage givers from wearing transparent clothing. Councilwoman Angelique Ashby, however, argued that the council has no place telling women what they can wear. Guerra agreed to delete that from the ordinance.

Councilwoman Mai Vang supported the ordinance, but questioned whether extra fees involved could financially harm some legally operating businesses. She also said she worries the policy could inadvertently advance an existing negative view of immigrant women.

“I don’t want this ordinance to further stigmatize Asian immigrant women,” she said.

The sex trafficking issue has come under more scrutiny in recent weeks, as has the objectification of Asian women. Those issues came together under a horrific spotlight in March in the Atlanta area when a man killed eight employees at three massage parlors, six of them women of Asian descent. The suspect reportedly told police he was trying to rid himself of a sex addiction.

In Sacramento, sex trafficking sites masquerading as massage businesses are a problem “hiding in full view,” according to a Sacramento Bee story in October that detailed the issue and the city’s efforts to combat it.

In 2018, Sacramento police investigated 50 massage businesses and arrested 37 people, according to a city report. City officials found beds, clothing and refrigerators stocked with food inside massage parlors, signs that women being trafficked are living there. Bowls of condoms were seen on counters inside the businesses.

The Bee’s own analysis in late 2020 estimated that of the roughly 200 massage businesses in the city of Sacramento, a third or more have been profiting from illegal sexual conduct between massage workers and customers. The Bee review cross-referenced massage parlor businesses with commentaries on a website that published reviews of massage parlors.

The new law, according to the city, connect survivors of human trafficking to support services.

It won support from numerous community groups, including the Sacramento Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce, Community Against Sexual Harm, My Sister’s House, Opening Doors, Planned Parenthood, Sacramento Regional Family Justice Center Foundation, Sacramento Women and Girls Advancement Coalition, WEAVE and Women Democrats of Sacramento County.

“This ordinance will reduce the harmful practice of requiring the arrest of vulnerable people in order to address illicit behavior, which can be handled through the enforcement of operating standards,” said Terri Galvan, head of Community Against Sexual Harm, a group that provides services for women previously trapped in the sex industry.

This story was originally published April 21, 2021 at 5:00 AM.