In Corona, Queens, a neighborhood persistently wrestling with the issue of visible street-level sex work, residents express growing exasperation despite recent police efforts to curb the problem. A rise in solicitation along Roosevelt Avenue has been linked by police and community representatives to an influx of migrants seeking employment opportunities.
Recent strategies by the New York Police Department (NYPD) have shifted the focus from arresting individual sex workers to targeting the establishments that employ them, leading to the closure of 13 massage parlors alleged to operate as brothels in January. However, NYPD officials admit that these closures are only a temporary solution, as new establishments quickly replace those that are shut down. NYPD Capt. Stanislav Levitsky shared the frustrating cycle of enforcement, stating, “Once we shut one down, it’s so easy to open another location literally next door. It’s not a big loss for whoever’s running the operation. Just a temporary setback.”
The city’s move away from prosecuting prostitution arrests has complicated efforts to address the issue. Data from the Data Collaborative for Justice at John Jay College reveals a significant drop in prostitution arrests over the decades, with just 107 occurring last year compared to 20,000 in 1985. This trend coincides with a legislative push to limit law enforcement’s ability to criminalize sex work.
Local district attorneys have varied in their approach to prostitution-related cases, with some choosing not to pursue most charges. Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz’s office, for instance, focuses on prosecuting sex trafficking rather than sex work, offering arrested individuals connections to services instead. This approach attempts to create a distinction between combating exploitative practices and acknowledging the complex reasons individuals may engage in sex work.
In fact, many argue that addressing the root causes of sex work, such as economic necessity and lack of legal employment options for migrants, is more effective than law enforcement action. Leigh Latimer, with the Legal Aid Society’s Exploitation Intervention Project, pointed out that nearly all individuals arrested on prostitution charges in Queens in recent years were new arrivals to the United States, often drawn into sex work through word of mouth within their communities and a necessity to acquire quick cash.
Yves Tong Nguyen of Red Canary Song, a grassroots group supporting migrant sex workers, emphasized the economic motivations behind the choice to engage in sex work, stating, “There’s a reason why people get engaged in this informal labor; because it’s what’s available to them.”
While some residents empathize with the plight of migrant sex workers, others, like longtime resident Lourdes Osorio, adopt a zero-tolerance stance, citing concerns for family safety and public decency. The debate over how to effectively manage sex work in Corona underscores the challenges of balancing enforcement with compassion and support for those driven to sex work out of necessity. As community leader Mauricio Zamora observed, despite periodic police crackdowns, the visibility of sex work on the streets has remained a consistent issue, reflecting the need for a different approach to addressing the underlying causes of sex work in the neighborhood.
