I'm strictly referring to the intent of the H-1B program, not the actual letter of the law. The Department of Labor's website makes this intent explicitly clear

I'm strictly referring to the intent of the H-1B program, not the actual letter of the law. The Department of Labor's website makes this intent explicitly clear: > The intent of the H-1B provisions is to help employers who cannot otherwise obtain needed business skills and abilities from the U.S. workforce by authorizing the temporary employment of qualified individuals who are not otherwise authorized to work in the United States. [0] You are mostly correct that the actual Immigration Act has almost no legal teeth to enforce this. The only explicit provision in the law is that H-1B dependent companies (≥15% of the workforce is H-1B) must "take good faith steps to recruit U.S. workers for the job for which the H-1Bs are sought." [1] In practice, this almost never applies, but it is nonetheless token lip service towards the ostensible intent of the H-1B program as strictly a specialized visa program, which is the pretense under which it was passed in 1990. [0] https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/immigration/h1b https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/immigration/h1b [1] https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/20/655.739 https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/20/655.739