If you can't compete with foreigners working in your field, you can't compete.
I'm concerned with the indentured servitude we're putting H1Bs under, but not with the fact that they're working here instead of China or India. There isn't a "shortage" of STEM workers in the US, but that's no reason to support protectionist policies.
The US currently accepts 1.2 million immigrants legally into the country every year, and the engineers among them are most welcome to work here with minimal licensing and red tape (this isn't the case for foreign lawyers or doctors). The question is whether the US government should go out of its way to increase the percentage of immigrants who are STEM workers (actually, even that would be an improvement over the terms of the H1B, which empowers corporations to decide who should and shouldn't be allowed to live and work here).
As it stands, I'd say the deck is stacked against engineers relative to other professions in the US. This is probably why people who have the right to choose their profession in the US are reluctant to go into STEM - it's a rational response to market distortion caused by uneven regulation.
The percentage of women going into computer science in college has dropped precipitously since the 1980s. Why is that?