Roger Berger had a simple question for the Florence, Kentucky, City Council at its Feb. 10 meeting. “I want to know if the council has taken a position if ICE or Homeland Security wants to build or acquire a concentration facility within the city limits?”

Berger’s question came as local jurisdictions around the nation are struggling with real estate transactions by businesses and individuals transferring land and large warehouse-like buildings to the Department of Homeland Security. The properties are slated to be used as mass detention facilities.

Some people critical of the trend compare the facilities to concentration camps.

In deeply conservative Mississippi, residents of Byhalia protested against the conversion of a large warehouse into a detention facility for 8,500 immigrants. GOP Sen. Roger Wicker then went on the record opposing the facility.