The lawyer for an Afghan man who said he was forced into servitude by the Taliban prior to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks asked a federal appeals court on Friday to reverse an agency decision denying him permanent legal status in the U.S.

Michigan-based attorney Michael Piston, who represents Mohamed Qaseem Kakar in the appeal, argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that an April 2016 administrative decision by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was “arbitrary and capricious” because the agency failed to consider whether his client acted under duress when he took up arms against a Shiite fighting force.