ZACATECAS, Mexico - More than 1,000 men from the Mexican state of Zacatecas have been recruited by U.S. companies through a special state program that helps them obtain legal visas to work temporarily in the United States.

Now women want in, too. And as it turns out, more and more U.S. employers - from Midwestern cleaning services to landscapers based in Austin - are in the market for female seasonal laborers.

Zacatecas is an arid state where jobs are as scarce as water. Many people have died in deserts or drowned in rivers trying to cross into the United States to look for work illegally. Women are no exception; in May, a smuggler abandoned migrant Amalia Martinez Esparza, leaving her to die of dehydration on the Texas border.

"I was on the brink of crossing like that as well, but my mother was very against it," said Diana Navarro, 28, who trained as a secretary in Zacatecas but has only been able to find work as a store clerk for $45 a week.

Navarro is seeking a legal visa through the state program and is on a list for a possible temporary job as a janitor in the Detroit area with Kellermeyer Building Services, the largest janitorial company in the United States. Kellermeyer is based in Maumee, Ohio, and operates in 45 states.

Scores of other women from Zacatecas also have registered to vie for as many as 100 seasonal positions with Kellermeyer, which cleans department stores and offices.

Kellermeyer must show it has attempted to recruit domestically in the Detroit area before it can obtain permission to hire the Mexican women. The U.S. Labor Department and the Immigration and Nationalization Service screen the applications.

"So far, it seems that only men have come and gone. Well, I went down and asked why women couldn't go, too," said Silvia Navarro, 46, Diana's aunt, who also hopes to be selected.

Rosa Leticia Bonora, 45, a single mother of four who has worked mostly as a seamstress, is another applicant. She heard that she might earn at least $7 an hour and that the company would find her an apartment to share with other women from Zacatecas.

Other possibilities are emerging in Austin, where a landscaping company called Gardens is considering collaborating with the Zacatecas program, Austin immigration lawyer Mehron Azamehr said.

"Initially, the Zacatecas program was all men. Now almost all my clients are open to hiring women, too," said Azamehr, who has arranged for residents of Zacatecas to work in meatpacking, food processing, construction and in resort hotels that require seasonal help.

In Dallas, a Spanish-language TV executive is working with Zacatecas and other Mexican states to recruit certified, bilingual nurses, male or female. Luis de la Garza, president of TeleAmerica in Dallas, said he's been told that hospitals in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas are in serious need of bilingual nurses.

"This kind of program is the only solution to illegal migration," de la Garza said. "Right now the Zacatecas program is one of the only programs where people can come safely, without fear and without having to be slaves."