I might be wrong here, but is not their reason to be strict on VISA so that they give better chance to actual Americans to try and land the jobs which would be normally be taken up by people coming in from outside US as students and staying back ?
How about the actual Americans be ready to do the jobs at the wages the sly immigrants are doing them? Oh wait, first you'd need actually qualified Americans to do them. Unfortunately, nature does not discriminate on the distribution of aptitude or intelligence across the globe, but humans have created insurmountable barriers to opportunity that disadvantage those born in less fortunate parts of this planet.
And no, the Internet is not a panacea to redistributing the skewed distribution of opportunities. Case point, modern cutting-edge biopharmaceutical research. Can't just do that in the 'developing' world with intermittent power supply, web access and most importantly a pittance for funding. I would love to meet the equivent of HN's beloved patio11 but for the biotech field. Haven't come across anyone yet.
Clearly this is a rant, so take it easy.
Like Native Americans? But seriously, if you are a true libertarian and believe all humans are equal, why does it matter if someone is an actual American?
The only reason I can see to restrict immigration is to help local areas plan their services (education, housing, etc) properly.
I mean, yeah, I probably could cut lawns around town for $1 / hour, but I'd like to keep programming for $100 / hour.
(btw, I'm all for immigration and people getting decent wages. But, there's also a lot of unemployment in the US - which we should try to address.)
Ten years ago, there was a 195,000 cap for H-1B visas - this year, thanks to legislation expiring, it was 65,000. Politicians aren't really prepared to handle legislation around increasing the number of visas available or comprehensive immigration reform because their support could be used against them when campaigning ("my opponent supported non-Americans taking your jobs!").