well there are plenty of crappy employers out there than just want cheap labor, but there are plenty that just want the best employees available world wide, esp

well there are plenty of crappy employers out there than just want cheap labor, but there are plenty that just want the best employees available world wide, especially if they compete in a world wide market. When I worked at Spotify (NYC office), we had many international engineers (french, spanish, indian, chinese, swedish... etc), that got stuck in the H-1B limbo.... Spotify just moved them into the Stockholm office until/when their H-1B went through.... doing the same work, paying Swedish taxes... The idea that 'less foreign/international' workers more jobs for US employees is partially false, and has two assumptions that are false: 1. Talent/workforce is not mobile (i.e. the same worker that could have been in the US, can't compete with US labour force outside the country, which is false). In case of Spotify, some of the projects which could have been done in NYC, just got done in Stockholm (and Goteborg) instead. 2. Smart people that coming in the US don't increase the overall economic PIE, but just take form the local workforce, which is false as well. Smart people usually raise up/increase the overall economic PIE. Sure, there is plenty workplaces (usually bodyshops and second rate employees), that use H-1Bs and OPTs for cheap labour, but most serious companies simply want the best engineers available world wide. The government should help/facilitate the second type of employer. There is many ways the H-1B and (OPTs) can be reformed in order to benefit both the local economy and preventing abusers of the system. Also, when engaged in a new cold war/trade war with China, the US can't afford to squander its most important asset that it has: The ability to attract the best of the world in this country. If you put barriers for smart people to come in, and your opponent has 4x the number of available talent locally, then you are bound to lose. While I like the hard stance of Trump with China, the hard stance with smart immigration is just boneheaded and plain stupid....