If he really did agree with me, then why did he point out how X and Y INTERN costs SOOO much money? It is orthogonal to the conversation, and yet he brought it

If he really did agree with me, then why did he point out how X and Y INTERN costs SOOO much money? It is orthogonal to the conversation, and yet he brought it up. It is there for a reason, and that reason is to point out that it is costly to hire an engineer. Why would he bring up that point? So what exactly where the salaries of those on H1-Bs? If you put on your job posting, that the salary range would be 250-300K, do you think you'd be digging through the bottom of the barrel for the resumes? Lastly, what is the difference in costs to you? In house lawyer (if the company is large enough, can handle the docs). Paperwork for them is a few K. Relocation and interview process is nearly a wash for out of state candidates. Again, a few K delta. That then is the excuse of a lower salary for the employee (by a significant amount). So "expensive" in terms of processing seems like not a whole lot in the grand scheme of things.