[...] Before making an H1B application, an H1B dependent employer must make "good faith" attempts to recruit resident US workers using "procedures that meet industry-wide standards" and "offering compensation at least as great as that offered to the H1B alien".
[...]
To pay the H1B worker at least the higher of the wage paid to similar workers in the same company or the "prevailing wage" (usually determined by the relevant State Employment Services Agency) for the occupation in the area the worker will be employed; [...]
Due to the extreme cost of living in CA, $53K a year in CA translates into about $30K a year in the Chicago area and $20-25K a year in most of the rest of the country(except the East Coast).
It is ironic that fools(and that is the most generous word I can use for them) throw around words such as "freedom" to defend this nonsense, while not giving a care at the ultimate end result. The more and more displaced Americans workers, the greater the chance that the US will become fully socialist. To those who throw around words like "freedom", if these trends are not stopped, you have seen nothing yet when it comes to taxes.
Here is a tip for any young, up and comming Department of Labor folks who want to make a name for themselves. Investigate the Indian / Indian-American owned contract temporary technical firms. That is a major source of illegal H1Bs. By illegal I mean that they are not following the H1B rules at these firms but simply have not yet been caught.