A family in limbo as U.S. slows refugee admissions

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Somali refugee Ramlo Ali Noor lives in Columbus, Ohio, where she's rented a large apartment in anticipation of the arrival of her three sons from Uganda.

But they are just two now. On September 22nd, their 16-year-old brother died suddenly from a brain infection.

(SOUND BITE) (English) SOMALI MIGRANT, ABDIRAHMAN MOHAMMED, SAYING:"It affected us so much when we lost our brother. He had no problem. He was a good boy. The three of us wanted to see our mom. For him, he was the youngest. She left him when he was too young. So he was the most major one who wants to see the mom. He always used to say that 'I want to see mom, I want to see mom. When should we go there?'"

The brothers, who live with an uncle in a cramped Kampala housing complex, have been waiting to be reunited with their mother since 2015, when she applied with the U.S. government to bring over her three boys, but their cases faced hold-ups in refugee processing under the Trump administration.

(SOUND BITE) (English) SOMALI MIGRANT, ABDIRAHMAN MOHAMMED, SAYING:

"We heard that Donald Trump, he says that he doesn't need much refugees so we pray that we shall see our mom. Hopefully and too near (soon)."

(SOUND BITE)(English) SOMALI MIGRANT, ABDULLAHI MOHAMMED, SAYING:

"I'm dying to meet with... unite with my mom. And everyday I miss her... The only thing I do is just pray to God... unite us."

Nineteen-year-old Abdirahman and 18-year-old Abdullahi have been separated from their mother since 2010 when she fled strife-torn Somalia.

Noor could only afford to travel alone, so she left her children with two of their aunts in the hopes of reuniting when she found a new home.

Soon after she left, one of the aunts was killed and the other injured in a militant attack on a market in a village south of Mogadishu.

With a job as a home health aide in the U.S., she was able to pay for the boys to move to Uganda.

Now, she fears the window for her two surviving sons to make it into the United States is closing.

On October 1, the Trump administration slashed the refugee ceiling to 18,000, its lowest since the modern refugee program began in 1980.

(SOUND BITE) (English) SOMALI MIGRANT, ABDIRAHMAN MOHAMMED, SAYING:

"My interest is not about to be in USA but what I want to see is my mom who lives there so we wanted to be united and still be alive together the remaining time of our lives."