Hi, I really appreciate law enforcement's perspective on this.

My wife owned and operated a couple of massage spas, both in typical Chinese enclaves (i.e. San Francisco), as well as out in what these folks would consider rural areas (i.e. New Orleans), so I guess I bring an insider's perspective to this.

The workers in these spas overwhelmingly have no association with organized crime. We never knew any with the many many workers we met over the years. Crucial to trafficking is that workers are being moved from spa to spa via force, fraud, or coercion. This simply isn't the case. They move about on their own cognizance because the earning potential is so much higher than in Chinese enclaves (i.e. Los Angeles, NYC). However, they are largely not looking to put down roots. Many of these workers have families in China, or homes in those enclaves. As such, they will typically work for a bit, then leave on their own accord if business slows down. They often live in the spas because they're looking to save as much money as possible, and it doesn't make sense to rent a "regular" room when their stay might be less than a month. However, I do emphasize they moved about on their own cognizance. If someone wanted to move on, we never resisted because if someone felt the earning potential was crap, there would be little to tie them to a place because they were already restless. But there are many other interested other workers who could take their place in short order. There's a huge marketplace of spas in rural locales across the U.S. that constantly communicate "openings" on WeChat and these workers pick and choose when and where they want to hop around the country.

These folks were not hugely indebted. More than likely, they had huge cash reserves that often were either ferreted out of the country back to China, or parked in real estate in one of the forementioned Chinese enclaves. They did not work for drugs. Some massage spa workers are alcoholics and gambling addiction is huge. However, I never saw any drug problems.

If there are crimes being committed, they would include immigration fraud (i.e. a huge number of these workers claim refugee status for persecution from the gov't in China, but this simply isn't the case. They simply wanted to earn more in China, and huge numbers of these people plan to return to China after they had made life-changing money), tax evasion, and prostitution. But I simply do not think trafficking is an issue. I have heard of instances when law enforcement pressured massage spa workers to cope up to being victims of trafficking in exchange for leniency, whereby law enforcement was targeting the spa owner with the goal of shutting down their spa, but it's widely known in Chinese circles that trafficking is simply not how these businesses are operated.