Texas stops massage exam in Chinese, citing 'human trafficking'
HOUSTON, TEXAS (KTRK) -- Massage therapists in Texas are required to pass a state licensing exam, but after offering it in Simplified Chinese for two years, the state suddenly decided to stop in November.
The agency in charge said they did it to stop human trafficking, but advocates said the change feels discriminatory.
For five months, 13 Investigates has been trying to get more details on why Texas stopped offering the exam in Simplified Chinese and what led to that policy decision. Our inquires were met with a lack of transparency.
The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, or TDLR, has been offering the exam to license new masseuses in English and Spanish for years.
In 2023, TDLR said it added a Simplified Chinese option based on industry feedback, but by late 2025, that option was gone.
TDLR told us "data showed a disproportionate number of exams being administered in Simplified Chinese that did not reflect the demographics of Texas massage students or licensees" and that the Chinese exam had become a "factor in schemes connected to human trafficking and organized criminal networks."
They added that ending the exam was a necessary step to "disrupt organized criminal networks."
Nabila Mansoor, executive director of Asian Texans for Justice, said the decision feels discriminatory.
"It's really casting a wide net on a small group of people, and it's frankly unacceptable," Mansoor said.
At a TDLR commission meeting on Oct. 28, 2025, just days before pulling the plug on the Simplified Chinese version of the exam, the agency said it had issued 26 emergency orders against illicit massage businesses across the state in six months.
An emergency order allows TDLR to close a business if it suspects human trafficking is happening.
"We must balance the offering of language accommodations against the risks of enabling bad actors," TDLR Commissioner Thomas Butler, who is also chair of the Anti-Human Trafficking Workgroup, said during the meeting last fall.
13 Investigates found there are 34,041 people with active massage therapy licenses in Texas, according to TDLR licensing data.
Human trafficking is a serious concern, and we wanted to understand how TDLR connected it to the Simplified Chinese exam, so we asked TDLR for data.
In fiscal year 2025, TDLR data shows that 62% of the 5,982 massage therapist exams taken were in Simplified Chinese, more than the number in English and Spanish combined.
34% of exams were taken in English and 4% in Spanish in fiscal year 2025.
In an email the agency sent to members of the massage industry, TDLR also cited another reason, claiming Texas had become a target for traffickers because 98% of out-of-state testers took the exam in Chinese in fiscal year 2025.
When 13 Investigates looked at the actual numbers, we found that even though out-of-state exams were predominantly taken in Simplified Chinese, 98% represented just 33 people. The year before that, only 10 out-of-state candidates took the Simplified Chinese test.
13 Investigates also wanted to see the internal discussions leading to the decision to end the exam.
We sent a formal request for publicly available emails from TDLR's executive leadership team that mention "Chinese" and "trafficking."
TDLR initially asked us what we meant by "executive leadership team," so we told them we were referring to everyone listed as a member of their "executive leadership team" on TDLR's website. That team includes TDLR's chief of staff, who, according to her bio, oversees the Anti-Human Trafficking Human Division.
TDLR charged us $262 for the emails we requested, and we paid the agency. Ten weeks later, they told us to ask for a refund.
TDLR claimed that every email sent to or from its nine-person executive leadership team that mentions those words during the two-and-a-half-month period of our request is protected by the attorney-client privilege, and they didn't turn over a single email.
We've filed a formal complaint with the Texas Attorney General's Office.
While TDLR fights to keep its internal discussions from 13 Investigates, the industry is feeling the squeeze.
"It is not illegal to be a massage therapist, and yet they're making it harder and harder for these folks that come here looking for a better life to be that and start working in a legal, lawful manner," Mansoor said.
We spoke to a local spa manager who said his business is not engaged in trafficking. He asked that we not show his face or use his name.
He said for many immigrants, this is an entry-level job and a way to earn a paycheck, adding that the technical language on the exam makes passing the test in English tough.
"The average person can't pass this test, so they are not studying to be massage therapists, and if they aren't studying for the tests, we have no workers," he said.
The spa manager added that if individuals knew English well enough to take the English version of the test, they would work in another industry.
He said the spa he manages used to have up to seven masseuses working, and now he's down to two. He said he didn't plan to stay much longer himself.
"Think about it, you work long hours, you don't get paid a lot, and you don't keep a high percentage of what you make," the manager said. "You often have to work 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., so it's hard."
13 Investigates also wanted to hone in on the specifics of what TDLR said is happening in our communities that led to the exam's discontinuation.
We asked TDLR several questions, including whether they're referring to sex or labor trafficking and what concrete link they found between the Simplified Chinese exam, human trafficking, and organized criminal networks.
TDLR declined an on-camera interview but told us in an email that its "enforcement work has identified patterns of fraud and attempts to circumvent licensing requirements that are consistent with broader concerns related to labor exploitation and human trafficking."
They also said the decision reflects a combination of enforcement experience and identified data trends and vulnerabilities, but gave no specifics.
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