[redwood]

Presumably the answer is because those H1B individuals do more for the same amount of investment (where we must quantify everything involved in the competitive hunt for talent).

The problem comes when these individuals are more valuable not because equivalent talent wasn't available but because they're slave-like workhorses without flexibility or options.

H1B offers companies power of employees that they simply cannot wield over American employees, period. This is especially popular in some industries. Look at the IT work force here in midtown Manhattan for example.

It's complicated.