A July 2025 CBS/YouGov poll asked Americans, “Do you approve or disapprove of the Trump administration’s program to find and deport immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally?”

The respondents were divided, with 49% of Americans approving and 51% disapproving.

But, as I’ll explain, that survey question addresses only part of the administration’s immigration enforcement agenda.

I’m a lawyer and former adviser to senior state officials in Florida, and to the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. I also teach human rights and national security courses at Florida State University, including an interdisciplinary seminar called Refugees, Asylees & Migrants.

Immigration issues are complex. Discussing them is challenging, since key terms are often conflated and confused.

Clarifying these terms and their legal implications can help ensure people are talking about the same things – regardless of whether they agree about who should be in the country.

Let’s start with terms describing different aspects of immigration.

Immigrant is a common term meaning a foreign national who intends to remain in the U.S. or another country where they weren’t born.

Migrant is a generic term that doesn’t have any specific legal meaning and is often used incorrectly as a synonym for immigrant.

Immigrants are considered documented if they’ve been issued an immigrant visa or a green card, thereby achieving lawful permanent resident status. Green cards and visas can be revoked – typically a consequence of certain criminal convictions. Visas allow foreign nationals to travel to a U.S. port of entry and request permission to enter but do not guarantee entry.

A lawful permanent resident generally can apply for U.S. citizenship after five years. This process is known as naturalization. In fiscal year 2024, 818,500 people were naturalized.

Once naturalized, revocation of U.S. citizenship – or denaturalization – is rare, traditionally resulting from fraud, omission during the application process or other extraordinary causes. Between 1990 and 2017, about 11 people annually had their naturalized citizenship revoked.

The Trump administration is reportedly expanding the scope of denaturalization and is being called out for allegedly weaponizing it against current political adversaries such as Elon Musk. However, denaturalization numbers remain low. The first Trump administration filed 102 denaturalization cases, and his current administration has filed five so far,

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