AUGUSTA, Maine — The administration of Gov. Janet Mills is asking a judge to throw out an arbitrator’s ruling that found the state illegally fired an epidemiologist after his work authorization briefly lapsed.
The lawsuit, filed Sept. 10 in an Augusta court, seeks to overturn an arbitrator’s June decision ordering the state to make David Abafi whole after it terminated him while he refiled a green card petition. Abafi grew up in Nigeria and immigrated to the U.S. in 2021. He worked at the Maine Center for Disease Control from early 2024 until his firing in April 2025.
The union says the immigration-related case is the first of its kind in Maine. It came just before Attorney General Aaron Frey put Maine among 20 other Democratic-led states that are suing President Donald Trump’s administration over new green card restrictions that they say unfairly punish immigrants for lawful conduct.
Abafi’s work authorization was tied to a green card application. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services denied it, notifying him his authorization to work would end in 18 days. He and the Maine Service Employees Association asked the state to place him on unpaid personal leave under the union contract instead, citing a provision allowing leaves of up to nine months that cannot be unreasonably denied.
The state refused. In an April termination letter, Maine CDC Chief Operating Officer Veronica Smith wrote that it would be illegal to employ him because employees on unpaid leave remain state employees eligible for benefits. The union proposed alternatives, including letting Abafi return once authorization was restored. The state rejected that, and the union grieved the firing.
An arbitrator sided with the union, noting that Abafi’s work authorization was restored around July 2, 2025, about three months after his firing.
The state’s motion argues the arbitrator “exceeded his powers” by forcing the state to take a legally untenable position. The state leans on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2002 ruling in Hoffman Plastic Compounds v. NLRB, which held employers must discharge workers found to be unauthorized.
DHHS spokesperson Lindsay Hammes said the department could not comment on pending litigation. MSEA spokesperson Tom Farkas called the state’s case “frivolous” and said the arbitrator’s ruling is final and binding under the union contract.
Abafi has since taken a job outside state government, but he is still owed back pay and could return to his old position under the arbitrator’s award, Farkas said. He said the union has never argued a case like this with the state before.