In the period 1866-1881, multiple ancestors of mine arrived at New York, subjects of Queen Victoria and the Emperor of Germany. They had many children born before they naturalized (and some never did).
When those children applied for passports or registered for the WW I draft, all listed their US Citizen status as “natural born” or “native born”, depending on the language of the form, and their citizenship was never in question.
So, at least in the case of white Irish or Germans, birthright citizenship was recognized by the generation that drafted and administered the XIV amendment.
But your ancestors were admitted after inspection at the point of disembarkation from England and Germany.
They were admitted by Port Captains or Customs Officers, who could have rejected them on the basis of many things, even then.
But they werent. It was with this knowledge that their children would be born citizens.
It’s a fundamental difference. If the children of illegal aliens are “us”, then who are we? And who chose them to be “us”?
Answer: their illegal alien parents designated them to be citizens, not us.
What nation allows criminal foreigners to decide who the citizenry will be?