The Senate Judiciary Committee has advanced a bill that would require counties, cities and towns to get rid of homeless encampments.

After being notified of the encampment, those entities would have to give the person living there 24 hours to remove their property. If they don't, the city would have to clean it up and keep the items for 14 days before destroying them.

If a tent is on private property, the unhoused person could be charged with criminal trespassing. Republican Sen. Justine Wadsack sponsored the bill.

“People are reporting that there are trespassers," Wadsack said. "There are these tent encampments showing up on their private property and nobody’s able to do anything about it. They all want to pass the buck and kick the can down the road. So this will give the municipalities the authority to start dealing with this.”

She also claimed some people choose to be homeless and don’t want help.

Marilyn Rodriguez testified against the bill on behalf of the ACLU of Arizona. She pushed back on Wadsack’s remarks.

“To infer that individuals by the sheer basis that [they] are unhoused, that they want to be in that position or have a right to be criminalized for that, is in and of itself problematic," Rodriguez said. "This is unconstitutional.”

Rodriguez said the bill violates Fourth, Eighth and 14th Amendment rights and would lead to millions of dollars in legal fees. Republicans advanced the bill on a party-line vote.