Thirty House Republicans voted with Democratic legislators to let the Pentagon recruit illegal aliens, and also grant them American citizenship, even though the Army and other services are pushing tens of thousands of Americans out of the services.

The Republicans joined the Democrats in voting against the amendment would have excluded illegal aliens, specially aliens granted ‘deferred prosecution’ by President Barack Obama, from the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest program.

Every one of the 30 GOP votes was critical because the amendment was defeated by just one vote, 210 to 211.

The win was made possible by Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R.-Wis.), who did not vote. Neither did Rep. Joe Heck (R.-Nev.), the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee on Military Personnel, which is responsible for military recruitment rules. Heck is the GOP candidate to replace Sen. Harry Reid (D.-Nev.), after having won Tuesday’s primary. The congressman is also a brigadier general in the Army Reserve.

https://twitter.com/RepJoeHeck/status/742763618345717761

Members of Ryan’s leadership team voted with the Democrats to outsource US military slots to illegals and to foreigners: Chairman of House Energy and Commerce Committee Rep. Fred Upton (R.-Mich.) and Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R.-Utah), as well as Rep. Jeff Denham (R.-Calif.). Denham is a member of Ryan’s House Steering Committee.

Here’s a roll call list of legislators’ votes.

MAVNI was created to help the Pentagon to recruit foreigners in a legally in the United States for jobs that require difficult to obtain language or cultural skills. The program has been officially expanded to include medical professionals, but in practice, military recruiters are bringing in illegal aliens to fill ordinary slots, such as truck drivers, plumbers, and laundry-laundry and clothing repair specialists, said Rep. Paul Gosar (R.-Ariz.).

“The MAVNI program allows citizenship to be granted to any enlistee, who serves one day of wartime service,” he said. “MAVNI was never intended to be utilized for the benefit of illegal aliens.”

Since the Obama Administration issued a memorandum authorizing illegal aliens in to the program, nearly 150 have enlisted–not the five, the Pentagon claimed in previous responses to his inquires, Gosar said.

One significant Ryan ally supported the Gosar amendment — Rep. Pete Sessions (R.-Texas), the chairman of the House Rules Committee. The Rule Committee is also known as the Speaker’s Committee because it serves as a speaker’s means to control the flow of debate and legislation. But the committee refused Gosar’s attempt to have a voice vote on his amendment one month ago.

After making his own remarks in favor of the amendment, Gosar yielded to Sessions.

“I am very supportive of this amendment to ensure that the administration cannot implement what I consider to be an unconstitutional memo expanding the MAVNI program,” said Sessions. “It is a clear violation of congressional intent–as a matter of fact, it is working around Congress.”

Ryan says he has made it his priority to re-assert the preeminence of Congress. Apparently, reining in the Pentagon’s backdoor amnesty program and returning it to what Congress originally intended is not yet a priority in his House.