17-year-old Ukrainian girl remains in U.S. custody after border separation
CBSN
A 17-year-old Ukrainian girl remained in U.S. government custody on Saturday after being denied immediate entry into the country by authorities along the southern border, where a growing number of Ukrainians have been traveling in hopes of entering the U.S., her caregivers told CBS News.
On Wednesday evening, Yelyzaveta, 17, who was training to be a missionary in Mexico, traveled to the San Ysidro U.S. border crossing in Southern California alongside Alina Dolinenko, 21, a fellow missionary trainee from Ukraine. Unable to return to war-torn Ukraine, Yelyzaveta and Dolinenko hoped to enter the U.S. to live with a Maryland resident who sponsored their missionary program in Mexico.
U.S. border officials have been allowing hundreds of Ukrainians to enter the country per day through the San Ysidro crossing after being instructed in early March to consider exempting those with Ukrainian passports from pandemic-era restrictions currently blocking other migrants from seeking asylum.
