Two Fort Worth teenagers, suddenly on their own.For nearly a year, 19-year-old Dulce Zepeda has been raising her 13-year-old sister, Maria, in the months since their parents were arrested by ICE and then deported.When NBC 5 Investigates first met Dulce and Maria in April, they were living in a Fort Worth apartment complex.
Dulce, cooking, driving her sister to middle school, working at a local McDonald’s, and selling her mother’s jewelry, she said, to help pay bills.“You never know whenever is the last hug that you’re going to have from your parents.You don’t know, you’ll never know how stressful and hard life is without them,” Dulce told NBC 5 Investigates.The girls are U.S.
citizens and legally entitled to remain in the country.But some immigration advocates say their case is a stark example of the precarious situations facing thousands of U.S.
citizen children whose parents have been detained during the Trump Administration’s immigration crackdown.Critics said rapid deportations of parents have led to what they describe as a new form of family separation, and they argue recent changes in ICE policy have increased the risk that parents will be deported, even before they are able to make plans for the care of their children.For Dulce and Maria, their world changed in an instant in August 2025, when the family went back to school shopping at a Walmart in Burleson.ICE told NBC 5 Investigates that Burleson Police arrested the girls’ mother, Daysi Munoz, for suspected shoplifting.
Burleson Police provided only portions of the police report, saying the case is still under investigation.The report lists suspected stolen items, including a mop, toilet paper and some crab meat.Munoz told NBC 5 Investigates that she and her husband had just forgotten about some items at the bottom of their cart and then tried to pay.
The incident eventually landed them in ICE custody.The girls said goodbye in the store parking lot.“Hugged me and told me to take care...