LOS ANGELES — On a Thursday in early June, a Border Patrol bus pulled up to a San Diego County transit station and 50 migrants got out.

Immediately, they were bombarded with offers from local vendors:

"Free charging, guys," said a man with a folding table. "Free pizza."

"Senorita, welcome, we can exchange your pesos for dollars," another man said, making his way through the migrants who were by then crowded onto the sidewalk, a wad of cash in his hand.

"Taxi al aeropuerto rapido," a licensed taxi driver said. "Quick taxi to the airport."

"SIM card, cigarette," another man said, speaking through the cigarette perched between his lips.

The chaotic scene had been the norm at the Iris Avenue Transit Center in San Ysidro ever since the county's migrant welcome center ran out of money and closed in February and Border Patrol resumed dropping off migrants at the station throughout the day. Many of those arriving at the California border have family or friends elsewhere and don't stay in the area long.

Al Otro Lado and other nonprofit groups routinely deployed aid workers to lead migrants to the trolley, which they could take to a free airport shuttle two stops away. But as the number of people crossing the border swelled earlier this year, a competing presence had also sprung up: street vendors, licensed and unlicensed taxis who saw in the migrants a business opportunity. Aid workers worried the newcomers were being exploited; taxi rides could go for $100, far above the $35 on Lyft.

Three weeks later, the scene had once again shifted. In the wake of President Biden's June 4 executive order limiting asylum claims at the southern border, the transit station is usually deserted, said Melissa Shepard, directing attorney at the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, which opposes Biden's asylum order.

Gone were the street vendors, taxi drivers and migrants, she said.

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