The Biden administration announced new policies at the southern border on Thursday, effective immediately, that will bar more immigrants from Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua from crossing the border to claim asylum while increasing the number of legal pathways for those migrants to apply for asylum from their home countries.

President Joe Biden laid out the policy changes in brief remarks Thursday at the White House. He blamed congressional Republicans for blocking a more comprehensive plan that he rolled out upon taking office in 2021.

“The failure to pass and fund this comprehensive plan has increased the challenges that we’re seeing at the Southwest border,” he said, speaking in the Roosevelt Room.

The border enforcement actions “aren’t going to fix our entire immigration system, but they can help us a good deal in managing what is a difficult challenge,” he added.

Biden has faced steady criticism from Republicans for not visiting the Southern border earlier in his presidency. He is planning to make his first trip to the border Sunday in El Paso, Texas, en route to a summit meeting of North American leaders.

When asked by a reporter why he is visiting the border now, Biden said: “The Republicans haven’t been serious about this at all.”

The president’s announcement comes as his administration faces record numbers of illegal border crossings, particularly by migrants from those three countries. Haitians, Cubans and Nicaraguans have been able to skirt expulsion via the Covid-19 border restrictions known as Title 42 that have prevented more than 1.4 million border crossings by forcing migrants back into Mexico before they can claim asylum. Citizens of Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua have not been subject to Title 42 in part because their home countries, and therefore Mexico, refuse to take them back. 

Now, the Biden administration will be sending up to 30,000 migrants from each of the three countries back into Mexico per month while allowing 30,000 asylum-seekers from each of the three countries admittance to live and work in the U.S. for two years. Those accepted through the application process must show they have a U.S.-based sponsor to support them, much like Venezuelans and Ukrainians have done through programs the Biden administration established for those countries. 

NBC News was first to report that the Biden administration was considering opening up an application program for migrants to apply to come to the U.S. from their home countries. 

Senior administration officials told reporters that the program is designed to cut down on the number of migrants who pay smugglers and take dangerous journeys to the United States. 

Immigration advocates have been critical of plans to limit the number of migrants who can cross the border, saying it infringes on international rights to asylum. In late December, the Supreme Court allowed Title 42 — a Trump-era immigration policy implemented when the pandemic broke out to quickly expel asylum-seekers at the border — to remain in effect for now, putting on hold a judge’s ruling that would have ended it.