We already nearly have a national ID. That’s what RealID is clearly building towards. It helps to build a standardized and federated database of state ID cards that meet Federal guidelines. There’s an de-duplication system called SPEXS as well as a standard called Nlets that can be used to search the state databases. There’s a multi-state query (MSQ) that allows law enforcement to query all of the state databases and obtain a lot of the functionality that we get from a national ID. What’s missing from this is citizenship data, but ICE has a system called IAQ/IAR that can help with that. The recent “BBB” bill also tosses a lot of IT funding at DHS and ICE, which might lead to further expansions.

There’s also a system called mDL that allows you to obtain a digitally signed mobile driver’s license that can be used in your smartphone. This is only supported by a few states for now but it’s not hard to imagine this expanding to many more states in the near future, especially now that both Apple and Google are starting to support it. TL;DR we may not have a national ID, but it sure seems like pretty soon we’ll have an effective “national ID” that does most of the same stuff.