I'm sorry but that is nonsense. High tech workers are not getting laid off for cheaper alternatives -- on the contrary, there is inflation of salary and benefits as companies like Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Google compete for the limited pool of people with decent software engineering skills. Foreign workers are brought in for the sake of filling positions that would otherwise go unfilled, and most of these companies open foreign offices to get access to skilled employees who are not willing to move.

It's unfortunate that Google can't adapt to H1-B holders being denied entry by just hiring tool and die makers who have been laid off from a manufacturing plant, but that is the reality of the industry.