Principles don’t keep my family housed and fed. H-1B is a direct threat from a foreign invasion to artificially lower the prevailing wage of IT professionals.
In consulting to 30+ big IT shops Ive worked beside many immigrants..some illegal, some H1B, some green card, some on student or tourist visa.
The managers make the best choice in bringing them in.
Repeatedly I see a big shop has budget for 3 big projects. They try and are unable to staff up all 3 projects with citizens...repeatedly. So they bring in immigrants.
Often they kill one project so they can fully staff the other 2 projects.
The alternatives are to send the entire project to India (which often happens. Ive done my share of training Indians to take my job to India.)
Or the alternative is to kill the projects.
The situation is complex. Companies see a lot of uncertainty in technology, in the stock market, in the customers and competition, and especially in government regulation.
Companies do not want to commit to long term employees. So the trend in the past 30 years has to increase the share of consultants from 5% to 50% in most big shops. Many Citizens don’t want to work as a consultant. They want security. Other citizens are picky about the technology they will work with. They don’t want any job that would have them. Other citizens are picky about the company they will work for. Not everyone can work in Silicon Valley. Maybe their best job is in a less prestigous place.