Is there any indication of the source of the desire you describe? That is, how are you characterizing it as desire on the part of the prospective employees rather than the industry participants and the lobbyists they hire? It's just that it seems strange to see an assertion that companies and associations are acting on behalf of people who don't work for them.
No, I know that's what's going on, it's just that I'm trying to unwind the tortured syntax you use to say it:
There is also a huge desire among highly skilled professionals to immigrate to the US, so much so that there's pressure in Washington...
You ascribe pressure in Washington to those prospective unemployed and unemigrated employees. That doesn't sound a little inverted from the state of affairs described from the perspective of the employers?
OK, so somehow outside workers themselves are exerting pressure on companies who have not yet hired them? Certainly there are workers who would like to work in the US and would need a visa to do so, but to say that there is some connection between them and hiring companies as anything but as a potential pool of applicants seems highly unlikely. Companies are acting in their own interests, and they're the ones hiring lobbyists. The future-employees are basically faceless and powerless in that mechanism.
What is the mechanism by which highly skilled professionals who have not yet emigrated are exerting pressure in Washington?