WATCH: DHS Secretary Mayorkas outlines Biden’s new restrictive immigration plan

Shortly after President Joe Biden announced a new border security plan, his Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, provided details on how the plan will work.

Watch Mayorkas’ remarks in the player above.

The administration plans to immediately begin turning away Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans who cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, aiming to set up a more orderly asylum process.

“The border is not open,” Mayorkas said. “We will continue to fully enforce our immigration laws in a safe, orderly and humane manner.”

The administration will accept 30,000 people per month from the four nations for two years and offer the ability to legally work, as long as they come legally, have eligible sponsors and pass vetting and background checks.

“Individuals without a legal basis to remain in the United States will be subject to prompt expulsion,” Mayorkas said.

These four affected nations are among those for whom migrant border crossings have risen most sharply, with no easy way to quickly return migrants to their home countries.

“Hemispheric challenges require hemispheric solutions, and we are working closely with governments throughout the region to create lawful pathways, enhance protection and better enforce borders throughout the migratory chain,” Mayorkas said.

WATCH: Biden announces tougher border restrictions, offers legal path for 30,000 each month

The Department of Homeland Security is creating an online appointment portal to help reduce wait times at U.S. ports of entry for those coming legally. It will allow people to set up an appointment to come and ask to be allowed into the country.

“This can be done on a smartphone with an app called CBP One. The app is designed to discourage individuals from congregating near the border and creating unsafe conditions,” Mayorkas said. “Those who use this process will generally be eligible for employment authorization while they are in the United States.”

At the U.S.-Mexico border, migrants have been denied a chance to seek asylum under U.S. and international law 2.5 million times since March 2020 under the Title 42 restrictions, introduced as an emergency health measure by Trump to prevent the spread of COVID-19, but there always has been criticism that the restrictions were used as a pretext by the Republican to seal off the border.

Biden moved to end the Title 42 restrictions, and Republicans sued to keep them. The U.S. Supreme Court has kept the rules in place for now. White House officials say they still believe the restrictions should end, but they believe they can continue to turn away migrants under immigration law.

The president has seen the numbers of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border rise dramatically during his two years in office; there were more than 2.38 million stops during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the first time the number cracked 2 million. The administration has struggled to clamp down on crossings, reluctant to take hard-line measures that would resemble those of the Trump administration.

Mayorkas also repeated Biden’s call for Congress to update the country’s immigration laws.

“As President Biden has done since his first day in office, we again call on Congress to legislate to provide sufficient resources to manage the increased encounters at the border and to fix the immigration system everyone agrees is terribly broken,” he said.

Biden is planning a trip to El Paso, Texas this weekend, his first trip to the southern border as president, before a planned trip to Mexico City to meet with North American leaders on Monday.