Some states have compliant licenses, some are moving in that direction, and some are opposed and some are opposed because it is an unfunded mandate and some because of civil liberty issues.
Real ID originated with the 9-11 commission, but as you touched on, it is also about illegal workers.
Part of "comprehensive immigration reform" is expanding the guest worker programs so they will have to have a tamper proof id, but that won't work unless the natives also have tamper proof id. Supposedly these types of IDs can not be faked so the illegals will not have access to them.
We should be running the fingerprints of all of the 24 year old “teenage” gangbangers crossing our border for “shelter” against foreign country criminal databases.
Canada won’t even permit a misdemeanor drunk driver to cross their border (even if not driving) because the charge is a felony up there.
Why not DNA, too?