The legacy media is at it again, this time working the old saw of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainment of illegal aliens with families, resulting in so-called family separation. The only thing missing is Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) dressed in white and crying in front of a makeshift cage like she did in 2018. After all, it worked so well the last time (/sarc).
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.
Since NBC failed to put them front and center, here are the facts behind the tiny violins: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) offers illegal aliens money (now up to $2,600) to self-deport. They can hit up the CBP-One app and make the arrangements, take all the children they have, and get a paid trip with startup money. Many have taken that option. Those that haven't face the consequences.
But as usual, the legacy media buried the full story toward the end of the article.
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.
So, had Munoz not been caught for suspected shoplifting, she would not have been in the predicament for ICE to apprehend her in the first place. DHS further illuminated this point.
What @NBCNews conveniently buried in this lying sob story is that the mother of these children is a CRIMINAL ILLEGAL ALIEN arrested for LARCENY.
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) August 17, 2026
Following her arrest by local law enforcement for the crime, Daysi Eladi Munoz-Duron was transferred to ICE custody, accepted a… https://t.co/XxcSHaWvU1
What @NBCNews conveniently buried in this lying sob story is that the mother of these children is a CRIMINAL ILLEGAL ALIEN arrested for LARCENY.
Following her arrest by local law enforcement for the crime, Daysi Eladi Munoz-Duron was transferred to ICE custody, accepted a voluntary return, and was deported on August 26, 2025.
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.
Yet, this is the second major "investigation" into something that is clearly known, so NBC News spreading misinformation about detained parents being unable to make "arrangements" for their children is out-and-outright gaslighting. Dulce Zepeda was 18 years old, which is a legal adult in Texas and the majority of the United States. So, despite the inconvenience, she is fully capable of taking care of her 13-year-old sister Maria. When the young ladies said goodbye to their mother in the parking lot, that was the chosen arrangement. No great mystery there. NBC even quoted Zepeda's acceptance of this arrangement in the article.
“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.
So, the fact that NBC is painting this as an example of the complications and problems with family separations under the Trump administration is a load of horse hockey.
As usual, buried within the underlying article is the revelation that their mother was arrested by local police on suspicion of shoplifting - which is how the parents ended up on ICE's radar as they were both in the US illegally.
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) August 17, 2026
Illegal aliens have been offered $2,600 and a… https://t.co/Bhd9JV8vzM
As usual, buried within the underlying article is the revelation that their mother was arrested by local police on suspicion of shoplifting - which is how the parents ended up on ICE's radar as they were both in the US illegally.
Illegal aliens have been offered $2,600 and a flight home to self-deport for a long time now. They've been warned repeatedly they will be subject to arrest, detention, and deportation if they don't take advantage of that offer.
You have heard little about New Jersey's Delaney Hall of late, because Border Czar Tom Homan and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin exposed the lies and debunked the hot garbage that Democrat reps supposedly doing oversight were trying to spread. It's less than 80 days to the November midterms, and Democrats and Leftists need to gin up unrest because ICE is no longer a hot-button issue. These sad tomes are just another way they try to make fetch happen.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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