> Maybe, but they give a pretty good idea of what the founders thought about the constitutional scope of the federal government's power over the borders.

Well, it shows what the Federalist Party thought; the Democratic-Republican Party didn't support the acts and was systematically targeted under the pretext of the acts. (And actually went to state legislatures in D-R leaning states to pass bills protesting the unconstitutionality of the federal laws and declaring them void.) “The Founders” were split between the parties (both Madison and Jefferson were Democratic-Republicans), and the Federalists were the more authoritarian faction.

The idea of “The Founders” as a unified group with a singular view on issued like this is ahistorical.