Unfortunately, these aren't Leave It To Beaver times anymore. Good people can die for just trying to talk to the wrong people. Since no innocent lives were at risk, stepping back and calling 911 was probably the better option here.
There is a federal law in play, too. I assume they are in America “to make a better lives for themselves,” as many are apt to say. But what happens if they aren’t here legally and eventually caught? Three squares a day? Tossed back to their third-world hellhole?