Almost half of foreign-born US residents are citizens

Of the 51.3 million people living in the U.S. in 2023 who were born in another country, 49% were U.S. citizens. Another 19% were lawful permanent residents who could become naturalized citizens over time. And 5% were in the country on student, work, diplomatic or other temporary visas. The remaining 27% – about 13.7 million people – were undocumented.

Just over one-quarter of those people have some form of legal or procedural protection from being deported. That includes several different classifications, including people who are awaiting a formal transition to permanent resident status, people who are awaiting a decision on an application for asylum, people who are victims of or witnesses to a crime in the U.S., and people who cannot be deported because their home countries are too dangerous.

The remaining 9.7 million people – 19% of foreign-born U.S. residents and about 3% of the country's total population – do not have legal permission to be in the U.S.