No one really knows how many people are trafficked in the United States. One of the most organized – and lucrative – is through massage, where traffickers are typically of Asian descent, with a variety of business models. More than two decades after the law took effect, women are still being trafficked all across the U.S. Prosecutors tend to settle for plea deals on related charges – pimping, pandering or money laundering – with lesser sentences. Police often rely on victims to say they’ve been forced and to identify perpetrators – which has proven an unrealistic expectation. Yet law enforcement and prosecutors struggle to build cases that lead to convictions. It also established a definition for sex trafficking: causing a person to engage in commercial sex through force, fraud or coercion. Congress intended the law to be comprehensive: It strengthened punishment for traffickers, created task forces and provided assistance for victims in the form of visas and restitution. The Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act was supposed to help women like Shirley, many of them new – and sometimes undocumented – immigrants. And I was thinking, ‘It would be best if I could die now.’” “At that time, I was thinking ‘Life is terrible,’ and tears were falling uncontrollably. I didn’t dare to talk to them, and didn’t dare to say that my ex-husband forced me to go to this massage parlor,” she told USA TODAY in her native Mandarin.

“I didn’t know where they were taking us.

And she couldn’t imagine how to leave, or what her husband would do if she came back home.Īs scared as she was of the two men who had trafficked her, Shirley was even more terrified of the burly police officers who showed up in February 2014. Instead, she had to perform sex acts for men who rang the doorbell at all hours.

She thought she’d be working as a masseuse. Shirley’s husband had pressured her into taking the job. The customer turned out to be an undercover officer. That night the boss sent her to a hotel on an “outcall” – bringing sexual services to a customer. She was living and working at a house being used for illicit massage. She mostly remembers how loud the police were. Shirley had been in Baltimore for only a few weeks when she was arrested. Illustrations: Ariana Torrey, USA TODAY NetworkĮDITOR’S NOTE: USA TODAY does not name victims of sexual violence. Massage workers in this story are referred to by their spa nicknames or their initials.

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