The US will accept no new applications for protection for "Dreamers," young migrants who arrived illegally in the US as minors, a senior official said Tuesday.

However those who already have a permit under the programme may renew it for a year, the official told reporters under condition of anonymity.

In 2017 President Donald Trump tried to cancel the programme called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which protected so-called Dreamers from deportation and allowed them to work and study in America.

But the case ended up in court and in June the Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration's attempt to kill DACA.

Now, the government will accept no new DACA applications but it will renew the protected status of those who already have it, although for just a year and not two as had been the case until now, the official said.

Some 700,000 people in America have benefited from the DACA programme, most of them of Latin American origin.