The Promise Walk · Veterans Day · Wednesday, November 11, 2026 · Washington, D.C.
American and Afghan. One promise.
On Veterans Day, veterans, Afghan allies, families, and friends walked together from the Lincoln Memorial to the U.S. Capitol and delivered the Promise Letter to Congress, signed by hand by those who walked. The walk is over. The letter is still open.
Walk complete · Updated November 12, 2026
Why we walked
The short road, and the long one.
The road from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol is a short one. The road Afghan allies and the Americans who served beside them have walked together is much longer. It runs through twenty years of shared service, the summer of 2021, and every year of waiting since.
Afghans our government vetted and brought here are losing their protections. We walked to remind Congress that the promise we made them is still ours to keep, and to deliver a letter asking members to keep it. The discharge petition on the Afghanistan TPS Act had opened two days earlier. It needs 218 signatures before January 3.
“To care for him who shall have borne the battle”
Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, 1865. We started at his memorial for a reason.
The route
About two miles, walked together.
Lincoln Memorial
Opening remarks from AfghanEvac, then we stepped off together.
The halfway point
Where those who could not walk the full route joined in.
The delivery
A moment of silence, a roll call, and the Promise Letter handed to members of Congress.
In pictures
From the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol.
The Promise Letter
Delivered on Veterans Day. Still collecting names.
What it is
A letter to Congress from the veterans, frontline civilians, and Afghan allies who walked, asking members to keep the promise the United States made to the Afghans who served beside us, starting with the Afghanistan TPS Act.
Who signed
Everyone who walked signed by hand before the letter went into the Capitol. Organizations across the country have been adding their names since.
Add your name
Organizations can still sign. Each new name is shared with the offices leading the bill, so Congress keeps hearing it after the walk.
Thank you
To everyone who walked.
To the veterans who marched again, the Afghan allies who walked in the open, the families who brought their children, and the friends who met us at the Capitol: thank you. You carried a promise two miles. Congress now has to carry it the rest of the way.
Photos from the walk are available to participants and press. Media inquiries: press@afghanevac.org. Questions: policy@afghanevac.org.
AfghanEvac is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization leading the fight to keep America’s promise to our Afghan mission partners and the Americans with whom they served. Questions: policy@afghanevac.org.