On March 6, 2025, TikTok user @rawnyates311 uploaded a video (archived) claiming an official stopped him in his truck at a weigh station in Arkansas and asked him to prove that he could read and write in English. The video's creator, Rawn
Couldn't believe it. Going through Arkansas, I thought it was a joke. Got stopped at the weigh station in Arkansas and was handed a piece of paper. He says: "Can you read and write English?" I said: "Yes, sir, I sure can." He goes: "Can you read this?" So I read it to myself and I was like, OK, start handing it back and he goes: "No, no, no, read it out loud for me." So I read it out loud for him and yeah, short and sweet, no problem. He goes: "Now, can you write this for me on this paper?" And I did, and there was a whole bunch of people that had already written on it. And I was actually witnessing people in handcuffs that had been pulled in and I was like: "What's going on?" He goes: "Oh, we've come across now that if you cannot read or write in English that it's a $5,000 fine and if you have a company in Arkansas that employs people that can't read or write in English it's a $10,000 fine paid on the spot. If you cannot pay it, you are automatically arrested and lose your license." What a shocker.
Versions of the claim continued to circulate into mid-March on X (archived), Facebook (archived), Threads (archived) and Bluesky. Despite Yates not mentioning any specific agency in the video, some social media users claimed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement administered the alleged tests.
At the time of our previous report on this rumor in March 2025, we were unable to prove that officials in Arkansas were administering roadside English tests for truckers. A spokesperson from the Arkansas Highway Police, a division of the Arkansas Department of Transportation, said via email on March 19 that the force was not carrying out tests. The Arkansas State Police, a separate force, did not yet respond to our questions about the alleged tests.
At that time, legislation was underway in the Arkansas House of Representatives that proposed fines of up to $5,000 for commercial driver's license (CDL) holders who did not meet the English-language requirements for drivers laid out in the Code of Federal Regulation's (CFR). The act suggested higher fines of $10,000 for commercial vehicle carriers who employed drivers who did not meet English-language requirements.
That legislation, HB 1569, was since withdrawn. However, on April 14, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a separate bill, Act 604, that also included fines of up to $1,000 for CDL holders who did not meet the CFR's English-language requirements. That bill will become active around July 13, 2025 — 90 days after Sanders signed it — according to its sponsor, Rep. R.J. Hawk, who confirmed the information to Snopes via email.
An Arkansas Highway Police spokesperson said via email on April 23 that the force had not changed the way it enforced CFR English-language requirements since Snopes' last contact with the agency in March 2025, when a spokesperson said the agency wasn't carrying out English tests. We contacted Arkansas State Police again to ask whether it would be administering roadside English tests when Act 604 becomes active, and we await a reply. The TikTok user who posted the April 12 video did not return a request for comment about his alleged roadside English test.
New Arkansas act fines drivers but not carriers for insufficient English skills
HB 1754, which Sanders signed into law as Act 604, enacted essentially the same English-language requirements as the withdrawn HB 1569, though with milder punishments for offenses than HB 1569 proposed.
Act 604 created, among others, the offense of "operating a commercial motor vehicle without sufficient English language proficiency" that was also featured in HB 1569. According to the act:
27-23-304. Operating a commercial motor vehicle without sufficient English Language proficiency.
(a) An operator of a commercial motor vehicle shall be able to read and speak the English language sufficiently to:
(1) Converse with the general public;
(2) Understand highway traffic signs and signals in the English language;
(3) Respond to official inquiries; and
(4) Make entries on reports and records.
Under Act 604, this offense is a violation and subject to a $500 fine in the first instance and a $1,000 fine for subsequent instances.
Act 604's definition of what constituted "sufficient English Language proficiency" was identical to the definition that appears in Title 49 in the Code of Federal Regulation (CFR). HB 1569 also used similar language.
According to the CFR, a person is qualified to drive a motor vehicle, commercial or otherwise, if the driver:
(2) Can read and speak the English language sufficiently to converse with the general public, to understand highway traffic signs and signals in the English language, to respond to official inquiries, and to make entries on reports and records;
Under HB 1569, commercial motor carriers could be fined $10,000 for providing a commercial motor vehicle to an "ineligible operator." This classification included someone who did not meet the bill's English-language requirements. Act 604, however, only imposes punishments on drivers, not carriers, for offenses committed under the act.
It was unclear at the time of this writing how officials would enforce Act 604's English-language proficiency requirement. The act itself did not specify which departments should enforce it or lay out how it should be done.
Snopes' archives contributed to this report.