Lawmakers on Capitol Hill reached a deal Monday to end the government shutdown after nearly three days, but the fate of DACA -- which had been a sticking point leading up to the shutdown -- remains uncertain.

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, is the policy that protects young people whose parents brought them to the U.S. illegally as children from being deported. DACA recipients, the approximately 700,000 so-called Dreamers, are unsure if they will continue to be shielded from deportation now that the Trump administration has ended the Obama-era program.

MORE ON THIS STORY: The latest on the shutdown

Nelson Melgar, 27, is a college graduate who has a job, is active in his community in Glen Cove and plans to go to law school. But his parents brought him to the country illegally from Honduras when he was 13.

"It's like living with constant anxiety, not being certain of your future," Melgar says.

Democratic lawmakers in Washington had vowed that no government spending bill would be passed without a long-term solution for the Dreamers. But in the compromise reached Monday, lawmakers instead agreed that DACA would only be discussed in the coming weeks.

Melgar says he feels let down by the party that promised to help him.

"It's disappointing because I expected more from the Democrats," he says. "To be frank with you, I think this has become sort of their M.O. They say they're going to do something, and then at the last minute they fold."

While some Long Islanders agree that there should be a fair solution for the Dreamers, others say funding the government comes first.

"One thing has nothing to do with the other. Fix the shutdown, go right on to the Dreamers situation," says one man, from Old Bethpage.

Melgar says he'll keep a close eye on Capitol Hill as the DACA discussion heats up, and he'll keep dreaming about one day becoming a citizen of the country that he calls home.

"This is an issue that we have to face, regardless. And this is an issue that this country has been facing for several decades, and nothing has been done about it," he says.

Lawmakers from both parties say they plan to have a resolution for DACA in place by Feb. 8, when the spending deal that was reached Monday will expire. The DACA program officially ends on March 5.