They are looking for experienced Unix SAs, Oracle DBAs, and guys with advanced networking and cloud experience.
As I pointed out in to my own company, these guys are not hanging around places like Ohio and North Carolina waiting for someone to move there are hire them.
A well managed company develops most of the people it needs internally and has no need to constantly recruit people with such highly specific experience.
That’s also scam used to claim a company can’t find qualified Americans.
You have got to be kidding? There are people all over the USA with those skills. What a BSer you are. You want networking? NC Research Triangle Park is overflowing with Cisco DBA's.
Cisco adding 550 jobs at Research Triangle Park facility over the next four years as it expands its campus.
With the possible exception of California, none of those are generally adverse to moving to places with good paying jobs.
So it is really not a matter of availability of talent in the area as it is the unwillingness to recruit it to move in.
Any place using this as an excuse not to relocate to lower cost American cities is most likely (a)fishing for a reason to move abroad or (b)fishing for a reason not to hire American and use H1B replacements.
I am personally acquainted with CMU IT Graduates who could not get IT jobs in the Pittsburgh area while their classmates from India with comparable or even lower grades were getting multiple offers. The evidence is overwhelming that companies try to avoid hiring Americans in this field.