se hablo espanol?

Well, believe it or not, the good folks that are operating some of the heavy equipment for Shining Rock Development, LLC's new golf course have a little trouble with the English language. Interestingly, one of the residents was out for an early morning walk on day and passed by where the guys were gathering before starting work. Here's the way the scene was described to me:
.....I walked over the top of a hill and saw a bunch of guys gathered in the center of a clearing. They were sharing donuts and shooting the breeze - one was handing out coffee, - you know, the kind of thing you'd expect to see in a construction crew at that time of day. Then the oddest thing happened. One looked up and noticed me. He seemed to gesture to the other guys, who looked up at me, then started to scatter towards their vehicles and the construction equipment. Its the same kind of reaction you would expect from a group of guilty teenagers when a policeman approaches. I struck up a conversation with one of the guys (I know a little Spanish) and found out they're from Mexico. The interesting thing here is that the only time I've ever seen a group of visiting workers react like they did is when I lived along the border, where undocumented workers were cautious around anyone clearly Anglo in descent....

Now, we obviously don't have all the facts, since the resident didn't think it right to ask the crew chief (el heffe) for their visas. Makes one wonder, though why the group reacted the way they did. Is Shining Rock Development, LLC condoning the use of illegal labor? Is it that much cheaper than hiring skilled American heavy equipment operators? Does this explain why this crew works early in the morning, on weekends and late at night, perhaps to avoid el emigre'?

Things that make you go hhmmmmmmmm............