>This is a backdoor immigration cut, nothing more. COVID is irrelevant.

I think COVID is very relevant. But you are also correct that this action is in line with the present administration's immigration policies outside of COVID.

In the big picture on the global scale, we're looking at a back-peddling on globalization (which includes immigration and free trade). The echos of the Great Depression should be (but aren't) on the minds of policymakers and the public because this same isolationist and protectionist philosophy exacerbated the pain of the depression.