Update | Trump supports radical US immigration overhaul, slashing legal intake and giving skilled workers priority

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday endorsed new legislation that would reduce legal immigration to the US and evaluate visa applications based on merit, with a preference for people with higher education or job skills.

The legislation would represent a dramatic overhaul of the current US immigration system, leading to a significant decrease in the number of green cards issued to immigrants and eliminating some benefits enjoyed by prospective immigrants with family members already here. Instead, applicants with advanced degrees, particular skills, or job offers would be given preference .

The changes would represent the fulfilment of a campaign-trail pledge for the president, and are favoured by top White House aides Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller, who have often pushed Trump to embrace a more nationalist agenda. They’ve argued that while high-skilled foreign workers can help stimulate the economy, low-skilled immigrants can suppress wages and job opportunities for US-born workers, and particularly those in blue-collar jobs already under threat from global trade.

The legislation “will reduce poverty, increase wages and save taxpayers billions and billions of dollars,” Trump said in remarks at the White House, where he was flanked by Republican Senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia, the bill’s sponsors.

The US should “favour applicants who can speak English, demonstrate they can financially support themselves and their families, and demonstrate skills.”

But the legislation faces a steep climb on Capitol Hill, where immigration bills have long struggled to gain momentum, even when lawmakers weren’t facing major pushes to raise the nation’s borrowing authority, fund the government, and overhaul the tax code.