H1bs are a lottery. There's no attempt to filter by quality, except that someone must want to employ/sponsor the candidate. The US does give ability based visa

H1bs are a lottery. There's no attempt to filter by quality, except that someone must want to employ/sponsor the candidate. The US does give ability based visas such as O1 but it's pretty difficult to prove/judge ability. (My wife just went through this process.) One decent indicator of ability is getting into and graduating from a top school. But even if a few less talented people slip through, is that really such a big deal? It's still a higher hurdle than "be born here", and besides, we get plenty of illegal/unqualified immigrants from the South who don't seem to be ruining the country. To me, it seems like a no-brainer to say: • come pay a US institution a ton of money • if you manage to pass their standards, we'll let you stay and contribute your high powered brain/education to our GDP