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Conservative Caucus: Jim Pfaff on John Fredericks Show Discussing Illegal Immigration & Policy Solut

Published: June 16, 2025
Network: John
Analysis: Conservative Caucus President Jim Pfaff

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Conservative Caucus President Jim Pfaff joined the John Fredericks Show to dissect the ongoing failures in illegal immigration enforcement and expose how businesses are systematically violating labor laws while American workers lose their jobs. In a wide-ranging discussion, Pfaff revealed that the solution to America’s immigration crisis doesn’t require new legislation—it requires elected officials who will actually enforce the laws already on the books. From fraudulent 1099 contractor schemes to sanctuary city defiance, Pfaff outlined why illegal immigration enforcement has become a matter of political will rather than legal authority.

Topics Covered

• The Laws Already on the Books That Officials Ignore
• How Businesses Exploit 1099 Contractor Status to Hire Illegals
• Virginia Workers Losing Jobs to Illegal Labor
• President Trump’s Strategic Focus on Blue Cities
• Corporate Lobbying Against Enforcement
• Why Free Immigration Only Works Without Welfare
• Key Takeaways

The Laws Already on the Books That Officials Ignore

When host John Fredericks asked about Virginia’s E-Verify requirements and whether it’s legal to hire illegal immigrants, Pfaff’s response cut to the heart of America’s immigration problem: “We don’t need immigration reform. We need a reform in individuals who we elect to follow the laws that are already on the books.”

Pfaff emphasized that illegal immigration enforcement isn’t hampered by insufficient legislation—it’s undermined by officials who refuse to execute existing federal law. The I-9 form that every employer is required to complete for new hires explicitly prohibits hiring individuals not legally authorized to work in the United States. This isn’t a gray area or a matter of interpretation; it’s clearly established federal law with both civil and criminal penalties.

“Just the fact that we’re in the place we are with illegal immigration as it is right now is evidence that you’ve got we’ve had presidents, we’ve had other officials who have totally ignored the laws that are on the books. None of these illegals should be here legally.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

The Conservative Caucus president pointed out that both at the federal and state level, hiring illegal immigrants constitutes a criminal act in most cases. Virginia, like most states, has laws requiring employers to verify work authorization. The problem isn’t the absence of legal tools—it’s the absence of enforcement.

How Businesses Exploit 1099 Contractor Status to Hire Illegals

One of the most revealing portions of the discussion centered on how employers systematically abuse 1099 contractor classifications to circumvent both immigration and labor laws. Fredericks noted that many businesses pay workers as independent contractors on 1099 forms while simultaneously requiring them to show up at specific times—a clear violation of contractor status requirements.

Pfaff confirmed this practice violates laws in most states, including Virginia: “You’re not allowed to call someone a contractor and then demand they be at work at a certain amount of time.” The distinction matters because legitimate independent contractors control when and how they complete their work, while employees work under the direction and schedule of their employer.

Fredericks illustrated the absurdity with his own business practices: “We have people on 1099s that write for us for WB Sports Nation, but they don’t have to show up. They can do it at midnight for all I care. They just have to meet a deadline. That you can do that. But if somebody’s got to show up at 5:15 a.m. every day, Monday to Friday, well, that’s not a contractor.”

Virginia Workers Losing Jobs to Illegal Labor

The discussion was prompted by back-to-back callers to Fredericks’ show, both Virginia workers directly impacted by illegal immigration enforcement failures. One caller had just lost his job to illegal workers willing to accept lower wages. The other described surviving in an industry where he was one of only a handful of U.S. workers remaining.

These weren’t abstract policy discussions—they were real-world consequences of non-enforcement. Pfaff acknowledged the human cost: “There are still workers that are struggling in this economy, and necessity is the generator of great triumph moving forward, and people can figure that out. But there’s no doubt it would be a short-term hardship.”

The Conservative Caucus president emphasized that while enforcing immigration law might create temporary disruptions for some businesses, the alternative—continuing to allow illegal labor to undercut American workers—represents an ongoing violation of both law and basic fairness. American workers who have paid into the system their entire lives are losing jobs to individuals who shouldn’t be in the country at all, while simultaneously supporting those same illegal workers through their tax dollars funding welfare programs.

President Trump’s Strategic Focus on Blue Cities

Fredericks introduced President Trump’s recent Truth Social post outlining a strategic approach to illegal immigration enforcement: concentrating ICE resources on sanctuary cities and Democrat-controlled urban areas where crime is highest and resistance to federal law is most pronounced.

Pfaff strongly endorsed this approach, framing it as both legally sound and politically necessary: “It absolutely should be the case there. Listen, it’s clear in law. We ostensibly elect this Congress to pass laws on our behalf, and once they’re on the books unless there’s a clear unconstitutional purpose in the law that can be adjudicated in a court of law, it’s the law.”

“The reality that we watch these Democrats get all incensed over cleaning up the mess that they created and we’re supposed to feel guilty about it, that Donald Trump’s supposed to sit back and feel guilty about it, is absurd. He has every bit of authority to do exactly what he is doing.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

The Conservative Caucus leader made clear that mayors and local officials who obstruct federal immigration enforcement are themselves breaking the law. When an illegal immigrant is identified in the United States, federal law grants the president authority through agencies like ICE to arrest and remove that individual. Local jurisdictions cannot legally thwart these operations, regardless of their “sanctuary” designations.

Pfaff dismissed concerns about political backlash from enforcement operations: “The only factor that comes into play when you’re taking these kinds of stands as an elected official is the political one, which is the one that matters least in this particular case.” He pointed to the weekend’s “No Kings” protests as an example of political theater that doesn’t change the legal or moral justification for enforcing immigration law.

Corporate Lobbying Against Enforcement

When Fredericks asked whether President Trump was being pressured by business interests through Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and others to deprioritize illegal immigration enforcement in agricultural and restaurant sectors, Pfaff confirmed that such lobbying is extensive.

“There’s surely a bunch of that that takes place, and the White House receives as much lobbying as Congress does,” Pfaff acknowledged. “You have these organizations coming in to do that. But this is the same argument we’ve been making all this time.”

The Conservative Caucus president traced this argument back through multiple administrations, including discussions of “comprehensive immigration reform” during the Bush years—which he characterized as simply meaning “amnesty like 1986 and let everybody do whatever they want.”

Pfaff identified two primary drivers behind America’s illegal immigration crisis:

1. Corporate interests wanting cheap labor: “Everyone wants inexpensive labor. I get that. But you got to follow by the rules.”
2. Misguided compassion: “We don’t want to do the icky stuff that makes it difficult in people’s minds. We don’t believe that it is kind and right.”

He drew a parallel between illegal immigration advocacy and DEI initiatives, suggesting both involve “people will twist something to try to get a different outcome that they’re not telling you they really want.” In the case of immigration, that outcome is “a flood of illegals to come in and be able to fill the gaps frankly of the congressional census”—a reference to how non-citizens counted in the census affect congressional apportionment and electoral votes.

Why Free Immigration Only Works Without Welfare

In one of the discussion’s most intellectually substantive moments, Pfaff invoked Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman’s observations about immigration and welfare. Prior to 1913, the United States had essentially open borders with free movement of people. Friedman argued this system worked well—but only under specific conditions.

“Milton Friedman has some things to say about prior to 1913 we had free immigration. People could come in and out of the country. And he thinks that that was the best system frankly. It’s not a bad system if you don’t have the second factor that no one wants to remember that he talked about, which is when you give away welfare, that system cannot work. It will not work.”

This economic insight explains why modern illegal immigration creates unsustainable fiscal pressures. When immigrants arrived at Ellis Island in the early 20th century, no safety net existed. Immigrants had to work, contribute, and integrate or return home. Today’s welfare state fundamentally changes that equation.

Pfaff expressed frustration with congressional resistance to Medicaid reform, particularly opposition to provisions preventing illegal immigrants from accessing taxpayer-funded benefits: “You’ve got people in the Senate going nuts over that. And I’m sitting back saying, ‘What is wrong with this? We should not have illegals using these programs. That’s not what they are for. They’re ostensibly to help the American people.'”

The combination of illegal workers not paying full taxes (through 1099 misclassification), receiving welfare benefits, and displacing American workers creates a triple burden on taxpaying citizens—a situation Pfaff characterized as economically and morally indefensible.

Key Takeaways

1. Enforcement, Not Legislation, Is the Problem – America doesn’t need new immigration laws; existing federal and state statutes already prohibit hiring illegal immigrants and provide enforcement mechanisms. The crisis stems from officials refusing to execute these laws.
2. 1099 Contractor Fraud Is Rampant – Businesses systematically misclassify illegal workers as independent contractors to circumvent I-9 verification requirements, avoid payroll taxes, and create plausible deniability about immigration status—all while requiring workers to maintain employee-like schedules.
3. American Workers Are Directly Harmed – Real workers in states like Virginia are losing jobs to illegal labor willing to accept lower wages and off-the-books payment, while their tax dollars simultaneously fund welfare benefits for those same illegal workers.
4. Trump’s Blue City Strategy Is Legally Sound – Concentrating ICE resources on sanctuary cities where local officials actively obstruct federal law represents both strategic enforcement and a legally justified response to jurisdictions in open defiance of immigration statutes.
5. Corporate Lobbying Undermines Enforcement – Business interests seeking cheap labor have consistently pressured multiple administrations to avoid immigration enforcement, using arguments about economic necessity that ignore legal requirements and American worker displacement.
6. Welfare Makes Open Immigration Unsustainable – As Milton Friedman observed, free immigration can work economically, but only without a welfare state. Modern America’s combination of porous borders and extensive social programs creates fiscal pressures that earlier immigration waves never generated.
7. Mayors Obstructing ICE Are Breaking the Law – Local officials who interfere with federal immigration enforcement are themselves violating federal law, regardless of “sanctuary” designations. Federal immigration authority is constitutionally clear and cannot be nullified by local policy preferences.

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About The Conservative Caucus:
The Conservative Caucus is a grassroots public policy action organization, formed in 1974. Headed by President Jim Pfaff, the Caucus is committed to advancing free enterprise, limited government, and traditional values.

Originally broadcast June 16, 2025 on John.