The Colorado legislature on Friday handed a invoice that seeks to deal with human trafficking within the state by cracking down on illicit therapeutic massage parlors.
If enacted, Home Invoice 1300 would give counties the ability to require particular enterprise licenses for therapeutic massage parlors, one thing cities can already do. Supporters of the invoice mentioned this may assist to eliminate illicit therapeutic massage parlors that supply sexual companies whereas disguised as reliable therapeutic massage companies.
The state Senate unanimously handed the bipartisan invoice Friday, following the Home’s 62-3 vote in March. The invoice will now be despatched to Gov. Jared Polis for ultimate consideration.
“This has at all times been an area authorities problem and a legislation enforcement problem that we’ve wanted to deal with,” mentioned invoice sponsor Sen. Bob Gardner, R-Colorado Springs. “The illegitimate therapeutic massage enterprise has been in Colorado and definitely in Colorado Springs for the reason that time I got here right here within the Seventies. Since that point, human trafficking by way of these illegitimate intercourse companies has elevated.”
A number of Colorado cities, similar to Denver and Aurora, have already enacted particular enterprise license necessities for therapeutic massage parlors to stop felons from working the companies and to create transparency round who owns the companies. Nonetheless, counties don’t at present have the flexibility to do that.
Gardner mentioned when his metropolis of Colorado Springs started regulating therapeutic massage parlors, the entire illicit companies moved to unincorporated El Paso County as a substitute, typically solely having to maneuver just a few hundred toes away to proceed their unlawful practices with out regulation.
Whereas there aren’t any official state estimates, a minimum of 34 illicit therapeutic massage parlors have been reported to be working within the Colorado Springs space in 2021. Nationwide, an estimated 9,000 illicit therapeutic massage companies generate $2.5 billion yearly, based on a Polaris report.
Illicit therapeutic massage parlors are sometimes staffed by intercourse trafficking victims who’re delivered to the U.S. underneath guarantees of a distinct work. The largely foreign-born ladies are pressured to work unlawful hours and infrequently dwell inside the companies, native legislation enforcement officers mentioned.
“Human trafficking is against the law that we see taking place throughout our state and that is one strategy to handle the issue,” mentioned invoice sponsor Sen. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora. “Nobody deserves to be caught up in a scenario the place they’re trafficked in these therapeutic massage companies. … We have to be sure that we’re sending a transparent message that this isn’t acceptable enterprise to be happening.”
The one three lawmakers who voted in opposition to the invoice are Republicans, a few of whom expressed concern that the invoice doesn’t go far sufficient to deal with the difficulty of human trafficking.
Underneath the invoice, counties may require therapeutic massage parlors to use for particular enterprise licenses, with exemptions for impartial therapeutic massage practitioners. The functions would require homeowners to move a felony background test and supply contact data. Functions may very well be denied for various causes, together with if the proprietor has been convicted of a intercourse crime.
