We don't have enough programmers and other technical and scientific workers

That's been the cry from companies that employ science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workers.  That's why any talk of immigration includes exceptions for these workers.  We give temporary visas to foreigners in these fields and green cards to every foreign graduate of an American college with a master’s or PhD in a STEM field.  Yet, studies consistently find that the US produces several times the number of STEM graduates than can get jobs in their fields. NIH, NSF and other organizations report that hundreds of thousands of STEM workers in the US are unemployed or underemployed. 

Why is that?  On one hand the workers are not organized, and their story is being largely ignored in the debate over immigration reform. On the other hand, companies and universities benefit from this foreign help. Temporary visas allow employers to pay skilled workers below-market wages, and these visas are valid only for specific jobs. Workers are unable to take another job, making them akin to indentured servants. Universities also use temporary visas to recruit international graduate students and postdoctoral scientists, mainly from China, to do the gruntwork for professors’ grants. 

I must say that there really was a shortage of programmers in the 20th century.  At one point, we imported some from Russia.  But in the 21st century programmer salaries have not escalated as they had in the 1900s; they are flat or have declined. Supply and demand are still relevant.  By increasing the number of STEM workers we are lowering the costs of companies and universities and damaging native Americans who made the mistake of studying science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.