EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Protesters at Michigan State University disrupted a forum on illegal immigration featuring Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo, one of Congress' most outspoken advocates for tougher immigration laws.

Kyle Bristow, chairman of the campus chapter of the Young Americans for Freedom, which co-sponsored Thursday night's event, said he was kicked and spat upon by some of the protesters outside the MSU College of Law, where the meeting was held.

"It saddens me that my fellow Spartans would display this type of behavior," Bristow told The State News, the independent student newspaper at Michigan State. "They are racist. It's sad we need police to come to control these radical leftists."

Campus police were called, but Bristow said he didn't plan to file a police report because he could not identify his assailants.

The meeting was delayed twice when a fire alarm was set off. Tancredo, R-Colo., chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, eventually spoke to more than 40 people amid both applause and jeering.

Tancredo was among the congressmen who voted in September to build an additional 700 miles of fence along the U.S.-Mexico border. He said he believes English should be the only national language, but he also supports people who are bilingual.

"I think diversity is a great thing," he said. "But it becomes a negative thing when it's the only thing."

The protesters against Tancredo included Randy McPherson, a premedical student who carried a sign that read "Where's the wall to keep you out?"

After the second fire alarm was pulled, McPherson said: "God works in mysterious ways. (Tancredo) shouldn't be here."

Earlier this week, Tancredo drew the ire of many Miami residents, calling their hometown "a third-world country."

Tancredo, author of a book about the illegal immigration issue in the U.S., used Miami as an example of how "the nature of America can be changed by uncontrolled immigration," according to a story first posted on WorldNetDaily.com.

''Look what has happened to Miami,'' the WorldNetDaily quoted Tancredo as saying in an interview. "It has become a third-world country. You just pick it up and move it someplace. You would never know you're in the United States of America. You would certainly say you're in a third-world country.''

The remarks prompted Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., to invite Tancredo to visit her hometown, saying, "Come on down; Tom, the water's fine," The Miami Herald reported.

Ros-Lehtinen said Miami is a "world-class city where diversity is celebrated. Here people have the opportunity to meet folks from across the globe and honor different cultures. Miami-Dade County is home to many outstanding universities, is headquarters to international businesses and has a vibrant economy.''

Tancredo, talking to 7NEWS Tuesday afternoon, defended his comments, which he made while at a conference in Florida.

"We were talking about, among other things, the fact that massive immigration into the country is changing the culture. And I said, 'Look at Miami, which is just south of us here, and you'll see a third-world country.' I believe that my statement is accurate in the context I was making it," Tancredo said.

"Miami is a good example of a situation where massive immigration -- both legal and illegal -- of people who don't necessarily want to be Americans. And then they come into a city that tells them that they don't have to be (Americans) and that creates an interesting and, I think, sometimes unpleasant situation. It's also the truth that you've got an incredible amount of violence. It's the murder capital of the world," he said.

In response to people calling him racist, Tancredo said, "This issue has got nothing to do with race. Do we have a culture? Is there something we can identify as the American culture? It's not based on race, as far as I can tell, certainly. And there have been plenty of people who have come into this country over the years from a wide variety of countries and a variety of races. They have come here, they have become Americans. They have assimilated. That's all I am asking for. That's all I want to see happen."

"What I am talking about is a willingness to assimilate into an American culture. What is so ugly about that? What is so racist about that? Millions upon millions of people have done it. Being black, brown or any hue in between, they have been able to do it. Why is it now that we're finding it so difficult, where we don't ask them to? We don't want them to learn English. We teach them in a language other than English in our schools. We actually try to put up barriers to assimilation," Tancredo added.

Tancredo, chairman of the House Immigration Reform Caucus, warned in his book, "In Mortal Danger: The Battle for America's Border and Security," that the country is on a course to the dustbin of history. Like the great and mighty empires of the past, he wrote, superpowers that once stretched from horizon to horizon, America is heading down the road to ruin.