OCTOBER\u00a0 19, 2011
\nby Chloe Kowalski \u201912, Contributing Writer<\/p>\n
Rocks breaking windows and yells of violent protest prevented Tom Tancredo from speaking on immigration policy at the University of North Carolina in 2009.<\/p>\n
But on Monday night, Tancredo drew a civil audience of students, faculty, and community members who packed Burgiss Theater, which seats 173.\u00a0 The event was sponsored by the Conservative Students for a Better Tomorrow.<\/p>\n
A Colorado Republican who served in Congress 1999-2009, Tancredo has been a lightning rod for debate for his conservative views on immigration.\u00a0 He is the author of In Mortal Danger: The Battle for America\u2019s Border and Security, <\/em>which proposes solutions to what he considers major flaws in the U.S. immigration system.\u00a0 Tancredo also ran\u00a0for president in 2008.<\/p>\n The subject of \u201ccult of multiculturalism\u201d was a common theme in Tancredo\u2019s message at Furman.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we have in America is a diversity cult\u2014this idea that it is the most important thing,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cDiversity can be a good thing, but it can\u2019t be the only thing that you have in common. I mean, isn\u2019t that a little oxymoronic? How can diversity be the only thing that holds us together?\u201d<\/p>\n According to Tancredo, cultural diversity harms U.S. culture. Tancredo supports a strict immigration policy and argues that immigrants who refuse to assimilate have a negative impact on jobs, wage rates, the education system and the national identity.<\/p>\n \u201cMy discussion on immigration has nothing to do with race,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Instead, Tancredo cited language, culture, food, attitudes, and history as immigration \u201cbaggage\u201d that should be exchanged for a homogenous American identity, rather than the current \u201chysterical commitment to multiculturalism.\u201d<\/p>\n During his talk Tancredo drew on experiences from his childhood with his Italian grandparents, emphasizing their efforts to become \u201cAmericanized.\u201d<\/p>\n Tancredo said the U.S. has struggled with immigration policy \u201csince about 1850, that\u2019s when immigration started to become an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n Since that time, he said, immigration has been a cycle allowing highs and lows to facilitate an immigrant\u2019s assimilation into the American culture.\u00a0 A profound problem, he said, has emerged in the last 45 years due to a steady rise in immigration.<\/p>\n Looking ahead to 2012, Tancredo said the Republican candidate, if elected, should heavily invest in technology to replace low-cost, undocumented immigrant workers. He also said that drones and \u201cboots on the ground\u201d should be deployed at the nation\u2019s southern border line to prevent illegal cross-over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" OCTOBER 19, 2011 Rocks breaking windows and yells of violent protest prevented Tom Tancredo from speaking on immigration policy at the University of North Carolina in 2009.<\/p>\n But on Monday night, Tancredo drew a civil audience of students, faculty, and community members who packed Burgiss Theater, which seats 173. The event was sponsored by the Conservative Students for a Better Tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":108,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,26,32,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-department-page","category-administrative","category-politics-and-international-affairs","category-student-life"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34113,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions\/34113"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nby Chloe Kowalski \u201912, Contributing Writer<\/p>\n