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 of my sister, take care of her and she really loved me. And no matter what, just take care of her because she was her little daughter, you know,” Dulce said.

After about 40 days, she said her parents were deported, leaving her to raise her sister. Their mother told NBC 5 Investigates she repeatedly told ICE she wanted to take the girls with her to Honduras. But Munoz said ICE told her that wasn’t possible, unless she wanted to spend at least four or five additional months in a detention center. Munoz said she has high blood pressure and feared her health would deteriorate in extended detention.

When NBC 5 Investigates first interviewed the girls, their family was trying to save enough money for a plane ticket for Maria to travel to Honduras, as she desperately missed her mom.

When asked about what she wanted in the future, Maria was clear in her answer: ‘”To go visit my Mom and Dad,” Maria said.

Immigration advocates say thousands of other U.S. citizen children face time apart from their parents and difficult decisions about the future.

“We are leaving children vulnerable in deeply precarious and uncertain situations,” said Zain Lakhani, director of migrant rights and justice at the Women’s Refugee Commission, a nonprofit that studies immigration issues.

NBC 5 Investigates analyzed government data from the University of Washington, which was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. It shows that at least 8,889 parents with U.S. citizen children were detained by ICE in just the first seven months of the new Trump Administration. The records make it difficult to determine how many U.S. citizen children those parents had, but they suggest that between 12,000 and 15,000 kids were impacted in seven months.

“Just to put that in context, that means 50 U.S. Citizen children a day experienced the arrest, detention, and potential deportation of one of their parents, 50 a day,” Lakhani said, adding that those kids are now more at risk because she said the Trump administration changed some language in what’s called the “ICE detained parents directive.” She said that the directive used to require ICE to help parents facilitate plans for their children before deportation. But the new directive requires ICE to facilitate when “operationally feasible.”

Lakhani said that this allows ICE to prioritize the need for speedy deportations ahead of arrangements for children, which can result in more parents leaving without their kids.

“So, this is, in my view, very much a new family separation crisis”, Lakhani said.

In a statement, an ICE Spokesperson told NBC 5 Investigates, “ICE does not separate families. Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children, or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates.”

We asked ICE about Dulce and Maria Zepeda, and their mother’s claims that ICE would not help reunite her with her children without extended time in detention. The agency did not answer those questions. In a statement, ICE confirmed that agents arrested Munoz in August of last year, referring to her as a ‘criminal alien” due to the suspected shoplifting incident.

The statement went on to say, “Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the United States.”

In recent weeks, Maria’s wish finally came true. Almost a year after her parents were apprehended, the family was able to buy a plane ticket and obtain a Honduran visa for Maria to reunite with her parents in a country she had never seen.

“She needs my mom and she already has a whole year with me,” Dulce Zepeda said as her sister prepared to board a plane.

For now, Dulce plans to stay in Fort Worth, trying to build a future alone now, in the country where she was born and raised. The Women’s Refugee Commission said situations like Dulce and Maria faced highlight why it’s important for child custody issues to be sorted out before a parent is deported. They say if a child is left in the U-S without a legal guardian the process of obtaining visas and plane tickets, or appointing a new guardian, can become harder and extend the time children are apart from their parents.

Data shows the current administration is also deporting people faster. The Deportation Data Project, a nonprofit research group, analyzed government data and found immigrants are now more likely to be deported in less than 60 days than during the previous administration and are less likely to be granted any release on bond.

The Women’s Refugee Commission says it has interviewed parents in Honduras who were deported so quickly they had little or no time to make plans for their children.