Wendy Domingo said she’s still in a shock over the circumstances that led to U.S. Border Patrol agents pulling over and detaining both of her parents in front of her entire family last Sunday.
They don’t normally all travel together, unless they go to church, which they had already done that morning. The Lake Worth Beach family of seven realized they needed to get new shoes for the siblings returning to school that week. Wendy, her mom, dad and four siblings piled into the car.
“ Why did we go out? Why did we all (go) out?,” Wendy said she repeatedly asked aloud. “Why didn't he just send me to be with the kids?"
On this day, the Domingo family would experience what tens of thousands of immigrant families in South Florida and across the country are experiencing under President Trump's mass deportation agenda.
U.S. immigration authorities want to remove 1 million people annually from the country this fiscal year and the next compared with roughly 442,000 people last year. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the lead agency, has plenty of money to carry out its mission, with Congress having granted the Department of Homeland Security more than $170 billion to use over four years.
Stopped by Border Patrol
Wendy, who had just celebrated her 18th birthday the night before and is a U.S. citizen, was driving. Her parents, who are undocumented, were passengers. Having her drive reflects the reality for immigrants in Palm Beach County in recent months, as officers focus on the county.
READ MORE: Over 300 arrested in Palm Beach County immigration operations that saw bakery owner detained
The family was driving on Military Trail, near Haverhill, when agents with Border Patrol signaled for her to pull over, something that had never happened to her before.
”Never did I ever (think) that they would both get taken away at the same time, leaving me in charge of my four siblings,” she said, in an interview with WLRN on Wednesday, “Leaving us all alone.”
A video of the incident, showing her siblings weeping and her parents — Abraham Domingo and Maria Leiva — hugging them goodbye, has since spread widely online. Her siblings are 16, 14, 11 and three years old.
One agent is overheard speaking in Spanish to the family. Another explained to Wendy in English that “the license plate … says non-citizen,” and the car is registered to her father. She had asked the agents why they had pulled them over.
Border Patrol did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a post on X, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Border Patrol, wrote that both parents were criminals.
“These illegal alien parents willingly chose to break our nation’s laws and, as a result of those choices, are responsible for what happens to their children — just as any U.S. citizen parent who breaks the law is when they are taken to jail,” the post stated.
Domingo and Leiva have been in the United States for roughly 20 years.
In its post, DHS said Domingo had previously been charged with domestic battery. Court records show that, in December 2024, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office had charged him with two counts of domestic battery, a misdemeanor offense in Florida.
Prosecutors dismissed the charge and Domingo received probation, after he completed a domestic violence course and mental health evaluation.
Leiva’s asylum appeal had been denied by a federal judge, ordering her removed.
Children left behind
The biggest impact of the arrests isn’t necessarily on the parents — it’s on their children.
Wendy said she and her father had not always had the best relationship, but they grew closer in the past year.
“ We were finally getting along,” she said.
After graduating from Lake Worth Community High School in the spring, she started working, first at a restaurant then at a hotel — at the front desk. She said she was proud of her work ethic.
Wendy said she planned to go to Palm Beach State College to study to become an ultrasound technician. She received financial aid to attend classes.
But now that her parents were taken into immigration detention, she said she’s going to have to take two jobs with no time for college classes.
Wendy said she recognizes there are many families out there going through the same thing.
“They say that this is supposed to make America great again,” she said bitterly. “They're just crushing my people's dreams.”
