Maggie and Scoop got things done

It used to be that if you wanted to get the government’s help all you had to do was call U.S. Senators Warren Magnuson or Scoop Jackson. I did on numerous occasions, and they came through.

A lawyer friend in Bothell had sponsored a Chinese couple and the man’s wife developed problems with her immigration status. She was born in Mainland China and fell under a different quota status. When my lawyer friend learned that I was going to be in Hong Kong, he asked me to check at the U.S. Consulate there and see what I could learn about her current status.

I met her, and we went to the consulate and were told that it would be at least five years before she would be able to join her husband in Bothell.

She was a nurse’s aide at a local hospital in Hong Kong, where the hospital was going to open a new wing in its facility, and she asked me to attend with her.

As it turned out, I was asked to cut the ribbon at the dedication ceremonies.

When I returned home, I contacted both Maggie and Scoop to see what could be done to get the wife to the United States. Several letters later, Maggie gave me some hope of mission accomplished.

It was two years later that I was on a similar trip and went to the consulate. I showed an official Maggie’s letters and the senator’s interest in getting the wife to the United States. The official asked if I would pay for a telegram to Washington D.C. and I said yes. I must have got some wheels turning because two weeks later the Chinese wife arrived in Seattle. Oh the magic of a U.S. senator with status.

At the same time, I was trying to find a way into Mainland China as a reporter. I had asked Jackson’s help to get passport clearance because at the time Mainland China was one of five countries that you were not allowed to travel to.

Scoop put me in contact with Frances Knight, head of the U. S. passport office, who gave me all the reasons why the government could not grant my request. It wasn’t until my third trip over that the passport office at the federal building in Seattle signed my passport off on Mainland China that I had any hope of getting in. I had made an attempt to get help from a contact at Air France.

All this was before Nixon went to China. As it turned out, I stood on the border in the New Territories in Hong Kong, and that was as close as I could come.

Here Scoop Jackson had been a big help in getting my passport stamped.

Again, a U.S. senator with status can remove a mountain of obstacles when you tangle with the U.S. government.