[PJBankard]

the children of citizens of the United States

I don't know where you went to school but the word citizens is plural meaning more than one. Thus in it's context of the Naturalization Act of 1790, that means children of two US Citizens. If it only needed to be one, it would have stated "children of a citizen of the United States".

[taxcontrol]

Short answer. Plural does not mean two, plural means one or more. Long answer In this context "citizens" can mean:

1) all, as in:
the children of all citizens of the United States

2) both parents, as in:
the children of both parent citizens of the United States

3) at least one parent, as in:
the children of a US citizen (all that qualify) of the United States

Of these, #1 and #3 are the least restrictive. #2 is the most restrictive. Under the 14th Amendment equal protection clause, strict scrutiny must be applied to restrict the rights of any person. Strict scrutiny means that a challenged statute must be "narrowly tailored" to serve a "compelling" government interest, and must not have a "less restrictive" alternative. The less restrictive alternative is that it applies to children who have one US parent.