Residents outside MetraPark protest its potential use as an immigrant detention center in Billings on Feb. 2, 2025. (Photo by Jenna Martin for the Daily Montanan)
In a letter released on MetraPark’s Facebook page during the weekend, General Manager Stoney Field made it clear that MetraPark in Billings is not currently scheduled, nor is planning to be used as a detention facility — an idea that Yellowstone County Commissioners supported and drew support from some members of the state’s four-person Congressional delegation.
“MetraPark as an entire campus, or any of its structures, will not be utilized as a detention facility of individuals whatsoever.” Field goes on to list MetraPark’s mission statement, including its designated use as a “multi-use complex” that serves the “entertainment, trade, athletic, educational, and agricultural needs of the region.”
Commission Chairman Mark Morse had sent a letter on county letterhead shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump announced his administration would begin detaining and deporting immigrants. The all-Republican commission appeared to support the idea, but it drew nearly instant backlash from the community which pressured the commissioners to withdraw it, as well as leading a public relations campaign against against regional bank First Interstate Bank which pays for the naming rights for the main arena, which seats nearly 10,000 people. Yellowstone County is Montana’s largest county.
MetraPark’s statement also included confirmation that there has been zero response from the federal government regarding the letter Morse sent to the Montana Congressional delegation, offering an open invitation to negotiate for the use of MetraPark as an option for federal authorities to detain “criminal immigrants.”
“This defines where we will stand as MetraPark,” said Field. “I was having customers, promoters, everyone, reaching out to us to see what was going on. I said I needed to have something definitive, and since we’d had no federal response I was approved by the Board of County Commissioners to release the letter.”
The lack of federal response is a critical component. As MetraPark is owned and operated by the county, final authority of what to do with the Metra rests with the Yellowstone County Commissioners. If the federal government were to respond to Morse’s original letter, MetraPark’s possible usage as a detention facility could be back on the table.
Public comment saw more than 70 people comment against the option, raising ethical and moral concerns as well as potential taxpayer burden and the threat of canceled events. The online petition against the idea, created the day Morse released the letter, has now collected more than 3,000 signatures.
Marcus Frye, the interim sabbatical minister at Billings First Congregational Church erected a display of a cage with a mannequin woman and baby in protest, and between Feb. 1 and 2 more than 100 residents protested outside the Metra. Sunday, most notably, was 18 degrees and in blizzard conditions.
“The letter put out by MetraPark management is another stand against what the commissioners have put forth,” said resident Darci Colbrese. “If I were the commissioners, I would rescind the original letter to allow MetraPark to be turned into a detention center for immigrants and we can be done with this absolute overreach of power.”
Frye has decided to keep the display at Billings First Congregational Church up, but remove the section that references the Metra.
“I want to act in good faith here. That being said, if they reverse course we can put it back up in a heartbeat,” he said.