I want a portal to have no public registration.  As admin, I want to assign users.

I deleted the "Subscribers" role.  I changed made the "registered users" not public.  But, you can still register with the site.  What am I missing?

The help file says:

• Public Role: Roles set as public enable all registered users to be able to subscribe or unsubscribe to the role.  Public Roles are managed by authenticated users under Membership Services on the User Account module. 
• Private Role: When a role is not set as public, it is a private role.  Only Administrators have access to manage user access to these roles, unless the role includes an RSVP Code.

Under Admin->Site Settings expand the Advanced Settings. Right at the top is where you set what kind of registrations you want on the site.