You are correct. They should. But they don't. It's the wording of that darn pesky 14th Amendment:
14th Amendment
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States;
nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
If they had only used the word 'citizen' a third and fourth time instead of the word 'person'...we wouldn't be having this problem.
They couldn't.
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.
The way the Constitution was originally written, a 'citizen of the United States' was a person born within the confines of Washington DC, or the *ten miles square* of the Constitutions Article 1 Section 8, Clause 17.
nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
A 'person' was everyone who were NOT US citizens, just residents of the states.
That why the two different terms were used.... United States = citizen / State = person.