I agree with many points of your post, and I can absolutely say that the system does not work as it's advertised to: my wife is(was) an H1B for a prominent tech

I agree with many points of your post, and I can absolutely say that the system does not work as it's advertised to: my wife is(was) an H1B for a prominent tech company, they pretty much insisted on her coming to the US and when they did it they advertised a position publicly (as is required by law) so specific as to completely rule anybody but her, and of would of course summary deny anybody that managed to get an interview(which they don't do any ways, they publicly post the position but than do not hold any interviews, and if they did for show they will never give a thumbs up). The decision to hire the non-U.S. candidate is made before the position is before the posted, which I do think is duplicitous and very much against the spirit of the law. On the other hand, I just don't feel to strongly that US jobs are solely for US people. This is a global economy and bringing in (hopefully bright and talented) people into the states does increase our national economic prospects. I do feel strongly, however, that the laws governing the process should be enforced completely, not in just the letter but in spirit. There are also some very complicated factors involved such as the cost of education in the US versus many other countries that substantially subsidize it, the potential use of unskilled works simply being used to drive the labor market down.