Californian farmers organized an agricultural summit in Fresno to seek ways of bringing more Central American workers to the United States to harvest their crops.
El Salvador's deputy president, Ana Vilma de Escobar, attended the meeting. The American farmers, she said, urgently need to hire 180,000 workers. But Escobar was reluctant to make any promises pending a US immigration reform that would provide permanent residence for thousands of Salvadorans already living in the US on temporary visas.