Zumbe’s Story: “I Don’t Know What to Do”

Zumbe had just begun preparations for his wife and children’s arrival in the United States. After nearly two years apart, they were finally slated to join him at his new home in South Carolina—and though their separation had been extremely difficult, he had stayed motivated by the thought of finally welcoming his family to a place where they could be safe and free.

Zumbe was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo but had spent much of his life in the same refugee camp in Tanzania where his family now languished.

“Life is difficult there,” he explains. “The Tanzanian government does not allow refugees to leave the camp to seek food or engage in business. It is as if they are prisoners, living there just in the camp and eating the same food provided to them by UNHCR [every day]. That’s all. It’s a life of imprisonment.”

When he came to the United States as a refugee in 2023, Zumbe was determined to build a better life for his family. He got a steady job in manufacturing and lived with a roommate, learning how to navigate his new community with help from Global Refuge affiliate Lutheran Services Carolinas. Though he had not yet begun looking for a house for his family, he was thinking ahead to when his wife and children—ages 6, 5, and 2—would once again be under the same roof.

But that all came crashing down on January 20, 2025, when the Trump administration issued an executive order immediately suspending all refugee resettlement.

“After the government announced that the admission of refugees to the United States had been suspended for the time being, I spoke with my case manager, Lesya, who said that the reunification process is currently on hold,” he remembers.

Across the world, his wife and children were being told the same thing.

“In the camp, my family was notified that everyone who had a case to travel to the United States had been suspended,” he said.

When he spoke to them on the phone later that day, his wife and children just cried.

“They felt so hurt and very disappointed,” he says. “My wife said ‘Let’s pray to God that His will be done,’ but she and the children were really sad.”

Now, with the administration’s additional actions to decimate the resettlement system and no end in sight, Zumbe doesn’t know where to turn.

“I don’t know what to do right now,” he says. “I don’t know where to start, nor where to end. I don’t know what to do right now to keep their process going. After the government intervened, I don’t know what else I can do as a person.”

When asked what he would say to the administration about his situation and those of other refugee families in limbo around the world, however, Zumbe was absolutely certain.

“I would ask the government to help our families get here, to reunite us with our families,” he says. “Because when we get here, we also help—we work so hard, we work in companies where other people are not working, we help the families we left behind.”

“People are suffering,” he adds. “Open the way for them. Continue accepting refugees into the United States.”

Global Refuge is advocating for the immediate restoration of the refugee resettlement system and working to fill in the gaps for families like Zumbe’s. Learn how you can help by visiting our Action Hub.