Non-protectionist would be free traffic across borders like within the EU. Any immigration policy is a form of protectionism.

BTW, I find your naive notion of the US as the promised land rather unsettling. Personally, I don't know anybody who would want to immigrate to the US, and especially not for the archaic, exploitative work culture.

Yes, this is matter of perspective. But you seem to be lacking any other perspective than US good, everywhere else bad. Which is probably one of the reasons why it's so easy to exploit immigrant knowledge workers in the US.