POLK COUNTY, Fla. — A veteran is asking for the community's help to bring his former comrades home.

They are amongst the thousands of people who missed the flight out of Kabul, Afghanistan in September of 2021.

“I trained with two national Afghan officers in Fort Jackson a few years ago,” said Todd Kuzma. “We kept in touch through letters, so I know what they’re going though out there in Afghanistan.”

“They aren’t the only ones trying to escape the Taliban," said Kuzma. “There are hundreds of Afghan army nationalists that have been working for the United States for years that are stuck there and it feels like we’re turning our back on them.”

Kuzma said his friend’s recent letters detail the fears of living amongst the Taliban. Several reports have been made of the terrorist group targeting national Afghan officers and other U.S. service members, like the 13 who were killed at the Kabul airport bombing in August of 2021.

U.S. troops have since completely evacuated Afghanistan, but still, immigration attorney Hardam Tripathi says that things on the ground only got worse.

“Pass the Afghan Adjustment Act. If we can pass that, we can have a pathway for these Afghan allies to obtain their permanent legal residence in the great United States of America,” said Tripathi.

The Afghan Adjustment Act seeks to change the way we deal with refugee cases, asylum and humanitarian parole.

“These people who did serve under our constituency can have a streamlined pathway to ultimately get their green cards and be permanent residents because currently, humanitarian parole only gives temporary status to these Afghan allies,” said Tripathi.

Tripathi, who is currently helping several people in Kabul, said part of the problem is the wait time for visas to be processed at the state department level.

“I think the call to action with respect to our Afghan allies is to have our constituents reach out to their congressional members and really advocate for these Afghan allies who have sacrificed for our freedoms and democracy here,” said Tripathi.

Kuzma agrees with the call to action now asking our elected officials to do what they can to get these troops home.

“They’ve done so much for our county and it feels like we forgot about them,” said Kuzma. “I know the state department is inundated with requests from everywhere.”

“When I was a finance officer, I was never there, but I knew what I was doing would affect hundreds of thousands of people. I used that as a drive for me to do my job well.”

“Remember, these aren’t just numbers or cases. These are people that have sacrificed a lot for not only their nation, trying to make Afghanistan a [freer] place, but also supporting our mission and making it so more of us could return home.”