Notice the terminology: Citizen of
each state.
Not Citizens of the
United States.
That clearly and obviously means it is up to each
State to determine who comprises their own
citizens. Once they become a citizen of a state, they become a citizen of the US.
NOT the other way around. That's how we started ****ing up the country. We flipped the hierarchy and gave more authority to the feds.
On top of that, I said "legal resident",
not "citizen", so even though Article IV section 2 makes it
obvious that it is the individual State that decides who its own citizens are, it becomes a
moot point anyway when discussing
legal residency.
And I point everyone to the words of Thomas Jefferson, again:
The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798
"...that
no power over them has been delegated to the United States."
Pretty clear statement. Now, I realize that this simple fact is obvious as all hell, given the terminology and powers delegated to the Federal government in the constitution.
The only foreigners that fall under
federal authority are those from countries that are
enemy nations. These would be nations such as Iran, North Korea, Cuba etc. Because that would be a military/diplomatic matter (which are matters that the Federal government
does have authority over)
Not Mexico, not Poland, not Haiti, etc. Those are nations we have friendly relations with, and thus their people are classified as Friendly aliens.
Thus, they are left to the jurisdiction of the States they reside in.