ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — There is a fight for immigrants’ rights happening across the Tampa Bay area. Advocates said there’s been a shift in immigration policies impacting local communities. Governor Ron DeSantis said the state continues to be the leader in immigration enforcement.

The deputy director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition said people who were once in the country legally are being targeted.

“76,000 Hondurans who lost their statuses yesterday. And another 4,000 Nicaraguans who lost their status yesterday,” said Renata Bozzetto, the deputy director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition.

On Friday, DeSantis recapped how the state pushed legislation to support President Donald Trump’s vision for an illegal immigration crackdown.

“We did what we should have done all along, making sure that Florida was the leader in immigration enforcement,” DeSantis said.

Advocates Tuesday night said, with all the enforcement, due process is being taken away.

“Florida is shaming the nation,” Bozzetto said.

Some of them said there aren’t enough attorneys to represent immigrants in these cases.

“If you look at the statistics, if you don’t have an attorney, you’re not going to get relief in immigration court,” said Amy Godshall, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Florida Immigrants’ Rights Campaign. “But a lot of the organizations have recently lost a lot of funding from the state, from the federal government, in part because sometimes they’re speaking out against the state and the federal government.”

According to Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, in Hillsborough County, there are more than 35,000 pending immigration cases and just over 8,000 of them have legal representation.

“How are you supposed to afford an immigration attorney when you can’t even work? Even people with lawful work permits are being arrested right now and detained because that’s apparently not good enough, even though it should be,” Godshall said.

DeSantis said the state is holding accountable those who are here illegally. Immigration advocates encouraged people to donate toward organizations fighting immigration court cases.