Prosecutors call the stretch “The Blade” — a corridor they say has become ground zero for illicit massage businesses, or IMBs, in the Portland metro area. A FOX 12 investigation found hundreds of similar storefronts operating across Oregon, many tied to a broader criminal network that advocates say exploits impoverished women, often trafficked from China, and forces them to perform commercial sex acts under the guise of legitimate massage therapy.
Now, after years of what prosecutors describe as inadequate tools and political resistance, a wave of new legislation is taking effect. But the fight over how — and whether — to crack down has exposed a deep divide among local leaders, Asian American advocacy groups, and sex worker communities about who these laws will ultimately protect, and who they might harm.
A lawmaker’s personal fight
State Rep. Thuy Tran, D-Portland, represents House District 45, which includes the intersection of 82nd Avenue and Sandy Boulevard. Her optometry practice, Rose City Vision Care, sits on that same boulevard.
She says the push to act didn’t come from a committee hearing. It came from her neighbors…