Actors, musicians play role in pushing immigration bill

• Star-studded group sends letter to President Obama and members of Congress
• Coincides with launch of website MigrationIsBeautiful.com
• Effort likely to make headlines but not sway GOP%2C says one observer

The push to overhaul the nation's immigration laws is officially going Hollywood.

More than 100 musicians and actors have signed a letter to President Obama and members of Congress urging them to pass a bill that provides a "clear road map to citizenship" for the nation's 11 million unauthorized immigrants.

The letter was provided to USA TODAY by Air Traffic Control, one of the groups that organized the effort and provides strategy to musicians and others pushing for social change. The letter also calls for the government to provide equal immigration rights to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals and families.

It coincides with the launch of a website, MigrationIsBeautiful.com, that supports a bill legalizing those in the country illegally, and comes in a week when a bipartisan Senate plan to overhaul the nation's immigration laws faces scrutiny in committee hearings.

"I have a familiarity with the immigrant experience and what this country represents to people all across the planet," said René Balcer, an Emmy Award-winning head writer and executive producer of Law & Order who immigrated to the United States from Canada in 1979.

"This letter was a nice way of telling the administration and the Senate to stay the course," he said.

Other signers include Robert Redford, Ed Harris, Stockard Channing, Rosario Dawson, John Leguizamo, Margaret Cho and Sarah Silverman, and musicians such as Chuck D, Yo-Yo Ma, The Roots and Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam.

Roy Beck, executive director for NumbersUSA, a group that advocates for lower levels of legal and illegal immigration, said the effort may generate headlines but will do little to win over the Republican votes needed because Hollywood is already an entrenched Democratic fundraising bastion.

"If anything, it calls attention to the fact that rich people have a tendency not to notice the horrible unemployment rates among black and Hispanic people, and are thinking mostly of how to legalize the status of the many undocumented people who provide services to them," Beck said.