ALICIA A. CALDWELL, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Homeland Security Department is acknowledging that tens of thousands of young families caught crossing the border illegally this year subsequently failed to meet with immigration agents, as they were instructed.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement confided to immigration advocates during a private meeting in Washington that about 70 percent of families the Obama administration had released into the interior of the U.S. never showed up as directed. The Associated Press obtained an audio recording of the meeting.

The estimate means roughly 41,000 members of immigrant families failed to appear.

The government official was not identified on the recording. The official separately said that deportation had been ordered for 860 people caught traveling as families at the border since May, but only 14 people had reported as ordered.