The Department of Homeland Security is offering $4,000,000 in the Citizenship and Integration Direct Services Grant Program, which is designed to “prepare Lawful Permanent Residents (LPRs) for citizenship” by “promoting the rights and responsibilities of citizenship through citizenship instruction and naturalization application services for LPRs.” Those of you who were paying attention in the aftermath of 9/11 might remember that the Department of Homeland Security was created in an effort to focus the government on stuff related to terrorism. In fact, the organization’s website still says that, sort of:

This Department of Homeland Security’s overriding and urgent mission is to lead the unified national effort to secure the country and preserve our freedoms.

Teaching immigrants about citizenship may be a very worthwhile, useful goal. But how it fits with an “overriding and urgent mission” to “secure the country” is an exercise left to the reader. But it’s a very good example of something that political science professors and other political types often talk about: the tendency for bureaucratic mission creep to happen over time.