Singaporean massage parlour boss added to US ‘worst of the worst criminal aliens list’

A Singaporean woman has been added to a US list of “the worst of the worst criminal aliens,” becoming the third citizen from the city state to appear on the register, after convicted sex offender Amos Yee and money launderer Lim Seok Pheng.

Jing Emtage, 54, was sentenced in July last year to two years and two months in prison on seven counts of second-degree promoting prostitution across multiple Washington state massage parlours she ran with her husband, Gerald Emtage.

Gerald Emtage, 49, was handed a jail term of three years and two months for the same offences following an investigation launched in 2021. Both also received concurrent 12-month sentences for money laundering.

According to prosecutors, the couple – who were arrested in 2023 – made “significant profits from the commercial sexual exploitation of dozens of women” while “living in a home valued at over a million dollars”.

While the defendants “hid hundreds of thousands of dollars in their home, there are no state records of any wages paid to their victims required to provide sexual services to strange men”, local news outlet Seattle Weekly reported, citing court documents.

Police said Jing Emtage transported women between businesses, and an inspection of her phone revealed messages discussing operations, including collecting money and delivering condoms.

Jing Emtage ran a massage therapy business in Singapore before moving to the United States in 2018, where she met her husband. She was diagnosed with throat cancer after her arrest. According to her sentencing memorandum, she “believes that her current health issue is her karmic punishment for her immoral decisions”, Federal Way Mirror reported.

She is currently being held at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) processing centre in Washington state awaiting deportation after being added to the list maintained by the Department of Homeland Security.

Before her inclusion, Yee was the first Singaporean named on the register when it was launched in December 2025.

The controversial blogger was deported to Singapore in March after serving a prison sentence in the US for child pornography and sexual grooming – a return criticised by Singaporean Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam.

“I wish the Americans had kept him,” Shanmugam said on a podcast in April.

In February, Lim became the second Singaporean added to the list – which contains around 46,000 people – following her arrest for money laundering.

The DHS does not publish a breakdown ranking origin countries by total numbers on the list, which highlights non-citizens convicted of crimes and targeted by ICE as part of US President Donald Trump’s sweeping anti-immigration crackdown.

However, US media reports show South American countries dominate the database, which also includes citizens from Asian nations such as India, Bangladesh and Laos.

The DHS said it “will not stop until every illegal alien is off our streets and out of our communities, so they can no longer threaten the lives, dreams and futures of American citizens”.

But many people appearing on the list do not fit its description.

In February, CBS News cited an internal DHS document showing that fewer than 14 per cent of the roughly 400,000 immigrants arrested by ICE during Trump’s first year back in office had charges or convictions for violent crimes such as robbery, kidnapping or sexual assault.

In response, the government said that the “fake news seems to think that illegal alien drug traffickers, drunk drivers, burglars, and those with weapons charges – whom they classify as ‘non-violent’ offenders – should be left alone, allowed to roam freely within the United States. Not under this administration”.