Congressman Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., a presidential candidate, spoke to a small group in the Memorial Union on Sunday and shared his views on illegal immigration, among other issues.

“We tend to discuss this issue in relatively insignificant terms when it has an impact on almost every issue that the top-tier candidates are talking about,” he said.

Tancredo advocated creating stronger and more secure borders and encouraging legal immigrants to assimilate into the American culture to create a stronger national identity.

“Ninety percent of the growth in this country is from immigration and, if trends continue, we will have half a billion people in America by 2018. With this many different people, an American culture connected by a common language is important. We have seen people from different cultures assimilate before – people just aren’t doing it now,” he said.

Don McDowell, consultant for ISU College Republicans and senior in political science, said he thought Tancredo was very passionate about the subject of immigration.

“He is almost a pioneer in the immigration issue,” McDowell said. “The reason this issue is one of the most passionately debated in the public sphere is his work.”

Tancredo also talked strongly about the federal government giving the people more freedom in how they live their lives, especially in terms of education.

“There’s this document called the Constitution, and it details how the federal government should handle things. There’s no section for education in there,” he said.

However, that didn’t mean he wanted the government to back off completely. He said there are some federal fixes available for expanding individual opportunities for health care.

“The government should not be creating medical plans for anyone. They should let people make their own plans. Health care should involve just the client and the provider, not job providers. That just complicates it,” he said.

Tancredo’s final point was the conflict in Iraq.

He said this is not a war with terror, but an ongoing clash of civilizations.

“You can’t be at war with terrorism, because that’s just a tactic that furthers an idea. That idea is radical Islam. I would love to believe that we were attacked because of us having troops in the Middle East, because then we could just withdraw, and it would be over – but that is a fantasy world,” he said.

When discussing Iraq, Tancredo said he wanted to have an adequate deterrent to people who want to attack the United States, and he advocates bombing holy sites in response to an attack.

“I can’t understand their logic, when they say, ‘We can set off bombs and chemical attacks in the U.S., but how dare you attack our holy sites.’ I just don’t care. Political correctness in this world will get you killed,” he said.