Maryland passed the nation’s largest tax credit for the poor. Democrats want it for noncitizens, too.

The Maryland General Assembly is mired in a partisan fight over whether to use one of the nation’s most effective anti-poverty tools to help immigrants who are not citizens. Democrats are advancing a bill to extend cash payments for the working poor to include taxpayers without Social Security numbers, citing a moral obligation to help all needy households amid a pandemic that has disproportionately harmed the poor and people of color. Their efforts put the state near the forefront of a national debate over expanding the social safety net for immigrants in the absence of federal immigration changes.