House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was hot and cold with immigration reform proponents last week.

At one point he was drawing praises for publicly condemning anti-immigrant comments by Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa; at another, he was eliciting jeers for promoting legislation that would only provide legal status to the children of undocumented immigrants.

The Virginia Republican capped things off on a high note, however, fleeing Washington, D.C., over the weekend for a bipartisan congressional “pilgrimage” to New York City.

The trip — co-led by House Democratic Caucus Vice Chairman Joseph Crowley of New York and Florida Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart and organized by the Faith & Politics Institute — was an opportunity for members on both sides of the aisle to “visit iconic sites and hear first hand and reflect on compelling stories of faith and hope in the American immigrant story.”

According to Cantor’s statement on Monday afternoon, a good, informative and educational time was had by all:

America has always served as a beacon of hope and opportunity to all. This trip was an opportunity to set politics aside and focus on the spirit of what ‘Becoming America’ means to us personally and what it means to us as a country. My family’s story, like so many, began when my grandparents fled anti-Semitic persecution in Russia to come to America. Widowed at a young age, my grandmother raised her two sons as a single-mother in the segregated south. With little but her thrift and faith she worked hard to ensure her children could realize the promise of this great country. I want to thank Representatives Joe Crowley and Mario Diaz-Balart for bringing us together and also sharing their incredible stories. Reflecting on our shared past, I look forward to focusing on ways we can continue to come together to solve problems and build a brighter future for all Americans.

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