ORR vs ICE — Who Controls a Detained Teenager J #juvenilejustice #justicesystem #lawexplained

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]There are two government agencies that both claim control over detained teenagers, and they don't always agree.

[00:00:07]When ICE detains a teen under 18, the law says they must be transferred to ORR, the Office of Refugee Resettlement within 72 hours. ORR runs shelters designed for kids. ICE runs detention centers designed for adults. But that handoff doesn't always happen. Sometimes teens sit in ICE custody for days or weeks waiting for a transfer that never comes. The Flores settlement agreement signed in 1997 was supposed to fix this.

[00:00:38]It set legal standards for how long miners can be held and under what conditions. It still gets violated today. Knowing the difference between ORR and ICE could mean the difference between a shelter bed and a jail cell.

[00:00:53]Follow JJ Decoded for the full breakdown.