My understanding is that you can be RealID compliant without checking for citizenship. And in theory RealID doesn’t have to have RFID in the chip. Enhanced ID has to have both of those requirements.
Enhanced can only be issued to US citizens to allow the border crossing.
RealID doesn’t offer much benefit. They validate your SSN and right to be in the country at a point in time. It’s more a political football than anything.
I can't speak to the technical side of things but legally for a state to issue a REAL ID they have to verify that the person is allowed to be in the US at the time of issuance, not that they are citizens, and, if applicable, they have to shorten the validity of the ID to the period that the person is expected to be allowed to be in the US.
