'The Hardest Was To Leave The House' Shares Asylum Seeker Who Fled Ukraine

SAN YSIDRO (CBSLA) — A family who fled Ukraine is spending their first weekend in the U.S. after first being denied entry at the San Diego border.

The mother and three children were released from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection at San Ysidro's processing facility on Friday. They had left Ukraine on February 22nd and came to Tijuana hoping to join relatives in California.

But they say it wasn't easy to leave everything behind.

"The hardest was to leave the house, to leave everything just like that, to pick up only stuff we might need, just a few things and leave like that," said the asylum seeker.

Officials had to make an exception to the rules to allow the family into the U.S. because asylum seekers are supposed to be turned away at the border.