It is much easier to find job when you are local and/or within the boundaries of the country.
Apply for the graduate programs near valley. Once you get admitted, come over on student visa. Look for job in the valley. Quit school after you get job and transfer to work visa. If employer agrees, continue school and work part-time with permission on student visa.
It is an interesting trick. Will I have to pay the school if I leave it early, and to reimburse any grants that I may have gotten? Do you know anyone who had done that?
Most STEM graduate programs will typically pay you to go to school and waive all or major portion of tuition fees. You don't need to repay anything. You might burn a few bridges at most. I have gone to graduate school where some of my classmates who came from other countries quit within one or two semesters and started working for companies full time.
From experience, I can tell you, it's not an easy task.
If you want a job there, when you are not from the United States, you have to show some incredible background (Academics, Works, Projects), something they can't find anywhere else.
Also you should apply for the big ones, which are the ones, that will go for the hassle of the paperwork for the work visa.
You could go for a 2 year master's degree at a university ideally in SV, but if you have to choose between a mediocre school in SV and a top school on the East Coast I'd go for the top school. This will get your foot in the door.
The problem is the VISA. If you don't have extra-ordinary skills for a company to decide to get you a VISA, it's hard to get a job.
Try to spend 1 or 2 years in Europe working for a big institution and also start a submitting code to big, shinny open source projects in the area that is of your interest. Then you can build a portfolio. Also be active here, on github and on SO, will help considerably from what I've seen.
Apply for the graduate programs near valley. Once you get admitted, come over on student visa. Look for job in the valley. Quit school after you get job and transfer to work visa. If employer agrees, continue school and work part-time with permission on student visa.