It sucks, but these people are not citizens in the country they work in, so I don't see how they have any kind of right to stay here. They're only here because the government here allowed it, for a while, with a temporary worker visa.
Now, it seems pretty obvious to me that these people are probably much more productive and better contributors to this country and its economy than most of our own natural-born citizens, but the fact that we're losing them means we're basically shooting ourselves in the foot. The US isn't the only country where skilled engineers can find good work; these people should be able to find good jobs in another country where they can get a better deal w.r.t. immigration. Germany seems like it's much more welcoming to highly-skilled immigrants, for instance.
I think this should be a cautionary tale to skilled immigrants.
I look at this from a different angle, and to me the U.S. seems very welcoming to highly-skilled immigrants. They are very well-paid from European point of view, not to mention others, and the society in general is used to absorbing immigrant workers.
Germany and other EU countries have expressed their welcoming attitude to immigrants in general ("Wir schaffen das"), often exaggerating the skills of people who actually had no relevant training or competence at all (plenty of quotes available for this). But the current discussion in EU about the recent immigration wave has turned into a blame game of "why does Eastern Europe not carry its share of the burden".
Now, it seems pretty obvious to me that these people are probably much more productive and better contributors to this country and its economy than most of our own natural-born citizens, but the fact that we're losing them means we're basically shooting ourselves in the foot. The US isn't the only country where skilled engineers can find good work; these people should be able to find good jobs in another country where they can get a better deal w.r.t. immigration. Germany seems like it's much more welcoming to highly-skilled immigrants, for instance.
I think this should be a cautionary tale to skilled immigrants.