The global economy works on the basis of relative competitive advantage. If American companies are forced to stop employing the best people they can still the lowest possible cost, they will just be out-competed by European, Chinese and Indian companies who do not suffer from similar restrictions.
The assertion that Indians are the best people is absurd. At most, all people are
America has benefited immensely from access to India's technical talent base, even if individual Americans who could not compete in a free labour market have suffered.
It is
not a level playing field that the Americans are now asking to b rolled back. If a Indian is imported into the USA on a H1B visa, who will get paid half of what an American is doing that job for or to directly replace a role in the USA by "being in the USA", that is not "competitive", that is salary arbitrage.
If a role is moved to India, that is one thing that most people understand. We have seen large scale outsourcing of manufacturing to places like China, and yes some people are upset about that but that is the reality of globalisation. But, as you say, that is completive in nature. If a role is moved to India to be done cheaper, then that is "competitive".
However, bringing in a H1B visa holder to the USA, so that you can fire a local person and have the H1B visa holder do the same job in the USA permanently is not competitive.
Having free labour movement is related to temporary movement of professionals, that is not the same as bringing in people permanently on a H1B visa to do that same job, with a view that visa holder can then apply for a green card and become a permanent citizen. Additionally, if there was such a "large skills" gap, then we would not see such large scale redundancies of local people we are seeing.
America can hardly force others to open its markets in the name of free markets and free trade and be protectionist itself.
Illogical statement, free markets of chasing where to do it the cheapest is fine, outsourcing projects to India is competitive and fine, as is manufacturing to China. That is the model that America has promoted. What the India model does, which is not fine, is asking to move people permanently to other countries, displacing local people. That model is not fine and what people are rebelling against.
Free markets are about products, and services access, not people transfer to displace local people.