devil's advocate - if they are HQ'd in the US, is hiring US citizens that big of an ask? why do they need cheap overseas labor?

IME it’s not cheaper, it’s the only way to find enough qualified people

IME at my org we have 3 contractors out of SE Asia to every 1 US FT role. They make less than a third of a FT US employee.

Yes, there is a ton of abuse that drives down pay for many people.

We should find way to improve the system.

Meh, not sure I really buy that argument. I've never had a problem hiring in the US. And this is for a mid-tier, mid-size software company that most people have never heard of, not located in SV, and PE-owned (not much in the way of big bonuses and no stock options).

I’ve interviewed hundreds of people over many years. Lucky to find one out of 10 that are good.

1/10 sounds in the ballpark - I think my ratio is better, but not by much. About half my interviews have been with candidates in India, half US, all for software engineering roles, mostly early to mid-career. Success rates weren't significantly different between the countries. Haven't had the chance to interview in Mexico yet, but we have an office there, so that'll probably happen soon.

For us, it's a mix of...

Local SMEs (regulatory requirements), sales, local implementation teams, HR / legal (to support the previous employees). And engineers.

Sales and implementation could maybe be US-based, but then we're flying them around the globe. Not sure that makes sense vs hiring locals.

SMEs, similar story - not always available in the US.

The engineers are the only ones that could realistically be co-located in the US. But, a good chunk of those were acqui-hired, so now you're asking them all to relocate to the US? Not sure that's viable in the best of times, and definitely not in today's ass-backwards political climate.