The Hispanic Leadership Network, a new organization that seeks to build a bridge between Latinos and the center-right, is being strongly criticized by some conservatives.

February 15, 2011 - by Ruben Navarrette Jr.

Who’s afraid of a little outreach to Latinos by moderate Republicans? Both the hard right and the hard left, it seems, albeit for different reasons.

The left is easy to figure out. They benefit from the status quo and the virtual monopoly that the Democratic Party holds on Latino voters, an unearned benefit if ever there was one.

The Obama administration has proven that. It regularly plays Latinos for chumps, using the immigration issue as both a carrot and a stick. Aware that many Latinos favor a comprehensive approach that secures the border but also provides a pathway to legal status for the undocumented, President Obama will — on Cinco de Mayo or whenever he speaks to a Latino audience — promise to deliver just that. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, his administration — specifically, the Department of Homeland Security — has continued the same workplace raids that Obama criticized while running for president and seems to be trying to set a record for deporting as many illegal immigrants as possible.

In fact, during a recent speech in El Paso, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano bragged that the administration has deported nearly 800,000 illegal immigrants in its first two years. There was no applause from the left, who voted for Obama in part because he criticized a system where Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents “terrorizedâ€