[geebee]

There isn't much else for you out there, which is why I certainly don't fault would-be immigrants for using the visa.

Would you have chosen to get a PhD if you already had citizenship and freedom to choose your path in life? Certainly some people who already have US citizenship choose to do so, but many opt out. Personally, I don't think studying what high tech companies tell you to study and working for them for the salary they tell you to work for should be a condition of immigrating to the US, and I don't want to see our immigration system run through their HR departments.

As for universities, well, it's great that you enjoyed your PhD program - I personally didn't and left with a MS. I feel that PhD programs are actually pretty abusive of their students, and I would oppose giving them any control over the immigration system either. I do think one of the reason they haven't experienced their "reckoning" (ie., a collapse in new students to exploit) is that they have established themselves as the gate keepers for a kind of new ellis island for skilled immigrants, and they can collect a toll in the form of many years of cheap research and teaching labor.

Again, I do agree that you personally didn't have a lot of options, and you don't have much choice but to worth within the legal boundaries our laws established. This certainly isn't your fault, at all.