Osburn bids blunt adieu to House

Alexia Aston

The Oklahoman USA TODAY NETWORK

A longtime Republican state representative has bid farewell to the Oklahoma Legislature with a pro-immigration, pro-free speech message that defied their party’s platform led by President Donald Trump.

Rep. Mike Osburn delivered his 30minute goodbye speech Monday, April 27, when he criticized the Federal Communications Commission for contributing to Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension and called the U.S. a “nation of immigrants.”

“I don’t care how much we try to sweep this inconvenient fact under the rug. It remains that we are a nation of immigrants,” Osburn said.

The speech marked one of the last

acts for the Edmond representative, who spent 10 years in the state House and served as chair of the powerful House Rules committee. In March, he announced he would not run for reelection.

Osburn began his farewell remarks by thanking his family, legislative assistants and fellow state lawmakers. He then told House members, “Now for the grenades.”

Osburn said freedom doesn’t mean what it used to mean, and policymakers should be concerned about the erosion of how they define freedom.

Osburn called it a slippery slope when people start getting censored and censured for pushing back against government policies and criticizing political leaders.

House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, recently banned Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. from speaking on the House floor after he defended Medicaid expansion while addressing the chamber.

Republican legislative leaders are attempting to rein in Medicaid expansion through measures that would ask voters to remove it from the Constitution and add it into state statute instead.

Osburn said everyone should be concerned when government officials make it illegal or impossible for people to peacefully practice their faith, speak, meet, write or “just doing life.”

“It could be your church, or your civic group, or the book you’re writing, or the speech you’re giving or the life you’re living that’s next,” Osburn said.

The representative received loud applause from his fellow lawmakers in the House chamber.

Osburn then spoke about the backlash Kimmel received in September 2025 for comments he made on his late-night talk show about the fatal shooting of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.

ABC temporarily suspended Kimmel after he said “the MAGA gang” was “desperately trying to characterize” the suspect charged with killing Kirk “as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”

Brendan Carr, the Trump-appointed chair of the Federal Communications Commission, urged ABC to take the action, leading to accusations that the suspension was an example of the government censoring free speech.

“Jimmy Kimmel criticizes the president, then all of a sudden, he has the FCC crawling up his and ABC’s backside,” Osburn said. “I don’t like it. Neither should you. That’s not America. That’s not freedom.”

Osburn then defended immigration, beginning his remarks by reminding lawmakers that the U.S. is a “nation of immigrants.”

The 2026 legislative session has been partially defined by Trumpbacked efforts to further restrict land ownership by non-citizens, create more barriers for immigrants to obtain a driver’s license and prohibit undocumented college students from eligibility for in-state tuition.

Hilbert sponsored two measures that would’ve had undocumented immigrants reported to federal authorities if they tried to receive government assistance.

Those bills died last week after Senate President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, refused to hear them in his chamber, saying they could deter undocumented mothers from applying for government assistance on behalf of their U.S.-born children.

During his speech, Osburn told lawmakers that at least one of their ancestors came to the U.S. by boat, and most of them likely didn’t have the necessary paperwork.

“America used to be the beacon of hope for the world, the one place anyone could go to find hope for a better life,” Osburn said.

The Republican lawmaker then read parts of Ronald Reagan’s final speech as U.S. president when he said, “Anyone from any corner of the Earth can come to live in America and become an American.”

Osburn said immigrants are craving what Americans already have: Hope, freedom and prosperity.

“We have a border problem no doubt,” Osburn said. “But my God is huge, and I promise he can make it and has made it possible for us to fix our border issues and also mean the words of ‘Jesus Loves the Little Children’ and to love our neighbors as ourselves and to realize that we are stronger because people from all over the world want to become Americans.”