US IMMIGRATION chief Kirstjen Nielsen said yesterday that negotiations on a Bill to alter the status of undocumented migrants brought to the country as children are still up in the air.

The Homeland Security secretary said the White House was open to several options for the immigrants, known as Dreamers, including citizenship or permanent legal status.

But she did not narrow down what notoriously mercurial President Donald Trump might accept as part of the replacement for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) scheme he axed last year.

Since 2012, the DACA has protected about 800,000 people from deportation. For most the US is the only country they have ever known.

Talks will resume now that Congress is back in session.

However, last week Mr Trump tweeted that he would not accept any protection for the child migrants “without the desperately needed WALL at the Southern Border … We must protect our Country at all cost!”

If no agreement is reached by March, those protected under the DACA are liable to be deported.