[ConservingFreedom]

All Cruz's amendment to the 2013 Gang of Eight bill proposed was increasing the cap on H1B visas, not mandating that number.

When has the cap ever not been reached?

Despite the arguments of protectionists, there is a shortage of STEM workers

No there is not:

“In fact, the nation graduates more than two times as many STEM students each year as find jobs in STEM fields. For the 180,000 or so openings annually, U.S. colleges and universities supply 500,000 graduates.” - http://issues.org/29-4/what-shortages-the-real-evidence-about-the-stem-workforce/

And many H-1Bs replace American workers - who are required, as a condition of getting their severance, to train those replacements (e.g., http://www.amren.com/news/2015/02/southern-california-edison-it-workers-beyond-furious-over-h-1b-replacements/) - so where's the "shortage"?

[xzins]

See #63 and #72

[sickoflibs]

RE :”In fact, the nation graduates more than two times as many STEM students each year as find jobs in STEM fields. For the 180,000 or so openings annually, U.S. colleges and universities supply 500,000 graduates.” -

This guy quotes completely different numbers :

There are some 40,000 computer science bachelor’s degree earners each year but roughly 4 million job vacancies for computer workers. In all, the median duration of advertising for STEM vacancies is more than twice that of those in other fields.

Short on STEM Talent Don't buy claims that the U.S. has too many STEM workers.

Another thing, one of my coworkers got hired last year as a new college grad with a BCS and she says that she was the only female of her class(that women are much less interested in this than past decades), and I bet one of the few multigeneration Americans too.