Hoax phone call about ICE raid leads to chaos in Goodyear warehouse

A warehouse in Goodyear erupted into chaos Friday morning after someone phoned in a hoax that the federal government was on its way to conduct an immigration raid. 

Videos posted online showed a frenzied scene inside a warehouse in Goodyear that houses retail distribution company Quetico Logistics. Workers — many wearing red T-shirts reading “I ❤︎ my job!” on the back — crowd around a shut glass door. In front of them stands a white man with a bald head, blocking their exit. The workers begin to shove at the door, trying to push back the man so they can get out of the building. He holds out for a few seconds, then gives way. A few people scramble through the door, out into the parking lot and away from the warehouse.

“We’ll find you,” a woman yells, walking towards the now open door through the remaining crowd. “We will file charges!”

The crowd surges near the door again as people try to leave. Some people have their phones in the air, filming the panicked scene.

“Let them go!” the woman yells, giving up and walking away from the warehouse exit. 

The Goodyear Police Department public information officer Sgt. Mayra Reeson confirmed the incident in an email saying that on Aug. 14 around 11:20 a.m. officers responded to a disturbance at the warehouse and investigated a reported assault between two workers.

Police said they learned that an anonymous call set off the ruckus. Someone with an unknown or blocked number claimed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was on its way to the warehouse. A Quetico Logistics spokesperson confirmed to New Times that the person called in the hoax to a contracting company called Jibe Staffing that works with Quetico Logistics.

“There is no evidence the call was valid, and we are not aware of any federal agents in the area,” Reeson wrote.  

She said she wasn’t aware of other hoax calls, about ICE raids or otherwise, in Goodyear.

ICE and Quetico Logistics confirmed that no agents went to the warehouse that day. Quetico Logistics further confirmed that it did not place the call, and stated that “several employees” are now on administrative leave pending a company review of the day’s events.

Internet sleuths identified two people in management that they believe were the ones who were filmed blocking the door and yelling at the workers. Phoenix New Times has not been able to contact the employees nor has it been able to verify their identities and roles in the incident.  

The footage was first posted by the People First Project, a nonprofit with a volunteer network that tracks immigration enforcement. Workers reached out to them while the incident unfolded and they sent two volunteers to the scene.

The videos prompted outrage online both at the workers — who some commenters assumed were working without documentation — and at the man and woman — who they accused of kidnapping and false imprisonment. Some commenters called for a boycott of the company, which describes itself on its website as doing full-service retail distribution. Early posts about the incident included inaccurate information, including that the business had called ICE on its workers.

Reeson wrote that she was not on the scene nor did she have access to the police report at that time so she couldn’t verify claims that the company didn’t let the workers leave until the officers arrived. She also couldn’t determine if the company violated any laws. 

“The majority of the employees had already left by the time Goodyear police officers responded,” Reeson wrote.

This story has been updated to include responses from ICE and from Quetico Logistics.