Keeping a pipeline of foreign immigration open during a pandemic makes no sense. Period.
Yes, there are administrative bits that aren't directly equal with travel, but they are in support of the ultimate goal; flow of people from there to here.
Yes, there are two parts to it - 1. why keep the flow of people in during a pandemic, and 2. *especially* why do it to fill jobs, when the anti-pandemic measures have resulted in artificially high unemployment?
This is a *great* time to ask why we need immigration right now. To increase our population density (now??)? To fill plentiful jobs? Why, exactly?
"Anyone who likes democracy in general should be very, very wary about a leader who attempts to leverage an emergency to push unrelated policies."
This is so rich in irony that I'm almost tempted to just let it sit there. It's the *governors* who have used this emergency to suspend civil liberties, suppress protests, engage in wacky arbitrary command and control economic regulation, etc.