Donald Trump says dreamers scheme to help immigrants is ’probably dead’

President Donald Trump has said a programme that protects immigrants who were brought to the US illegally as children is "probably dead", casting a cloud over already tenuous negotiations just days before a deadline on a government funding deal that Democrats have tied to immigration.

At issue is the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme created by President Barack Obama to shield hundreds of thousands of these individuals, known as Dreamers, from deportation.