Mixed Reviews on Program for Immigrants with Criminal Records Senior Obama administration officials created major confusion for state and local authorities by providing inconsistent information about a high-profile federal program to identify illegal immigrants who committed crimes, according to a stinging report published Friday by the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security. Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press Protesting the Secure Communities program last year. The mixed messages about the expansion of the program, known as Secure Communities, from officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement led directly to "opposition, criticism and resistance in some locations," the inspector general, Charles K. Edwards, found. But in a second report released on Friday, the inspector general's office found that despite the rocky start and continuing political disputes, Secure Communities has been effective at rapidly identifying more immigrants who committed serious crimes - and in many more places - than efforts in the past, and at a very low cost to states. The program is a centerpiece of the Obama administration's immigration enforcement policy, intended to increase the number of convicted criminals among about 400,000 immigrants deported each year. The second report found that enforcement officers had a good understanding of priorities set by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for detaining and deporting immigrants identified under the program, making decisions in line with its priorities in 97 percent of 723 cases that auditors reviewed. The back-to-back reports brought both an embarrassing critique of the performance of officials at the immigration agency, known as ICE, as they extended the program across the country, but also an endorsement by the inspector general's office of its effectiveness in some aspects. Officials have said they plan to spread Secure Communities nationwide by next year. Amid conflicting statements from ICE officials about whether the program was mandatory, governors of several states - including Illinois, Massachusetts and New York - have sought to withdraw from Secure Communities. The program has drawn an outcry from many immigrant organizations, which contend that it has led to the separation of families and the deportation of many immigrants here illegally who did not actually have criminal records. Under Secure Communities, fingerprints of anyone arrested by the police are checked against both F.B.I. criminal databases, a routine procedure, and also against databases of the Department of Homeland Security, which hold records of all foreign-born people in the immigration system. As of last December, the program was operating in 44 states, covering 64 percent of local law enforcement jurisdictions. Under ICE's priorities, agents are instructed to accelerate deportations of serious offenders, but exercise prosecutorial discretion to suspend deportations of illegal immigrants who do not have criminal convictions. The inspector general "did not find evidence that ICE intentionally misled" local officials or the public about Secure Communities. But the report includes a chronological roster of misstatements and conflicting documents issued by ICE officials - including the director, John Morton - about whether states could opt out of the program. While ICE indicated during 2009 and 2010 that the program was voluntary, officials eventually settled on the position that states could not withdraw. The report finds that the officials failed to set clear policies internally and "missed opportunities" to clarify the situation. In a statement Friday, Nicole Navas, a spokeswoman for ICE, said that the agency had taken "aggressive steps" in the past year to provide clearer guidance about the program. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has acknowledged that her department fumbled communications about Secure Communities. Homeland Security officials said Friday that they were in the final stages of preparing new guidelines to govern the program, as the inspector general urged. Representative Zoe Lofgren of California, the ranking Democrat on the House immigration subcommittee, wrote a letter last year that prompted the inspector general's review. She said Friday that she was "frankly disappointed" with the reports, saying they failed to answer several of her questions: "Does the program also ensnare victims and others with no criminal history? Is it susceptible to racial profiling? Immigrant advocates said the inspector general reports showed that the Secure Communities program should be canceled. "In an attempt to justify the program, the reports inadvertently admit that ICE has mutated S-Comm into an overreaching dragnet," said Sarahi Uribe, of the National Day Laborers Organizing Network, one of the most staunch opponents of the program.