By MANNY GARCIA and ANA ACLE
Herald Staff Writers

Federal authorities reassigned a U.S. immigration officer Friday, less than one day after six rafters told The Herald they were verbally abused and forced to pose for a snapshot holding a picture of Fidel Castro.

The Justice Department and the Immigration and Naturalization Service declined to identify the uniformed officer, saying the incident is under investigation. However, an INS spokesman said the officer is not with the U.S. Border Patrol, a division of the agency. The officer was reassigned ``to duties which do not involve contact with detainees,'' the Justice Department said.

The rafters, whose attempt to reach Surfside beach was televised live earlier this week, said a uniformed officer photographed them at the Border Patrol office in Pembroke Pines, then drove them to the Krome detention center. Under INS policy, the driver would be a uniformed INS officer based at Krome.

``I'm happy what happened is being investigated,'' said Israel Ramos Consuegra, 18, one of the rafters. ``We were very upset that this could happen to us.

``We felt that it was like blackmail. If we didn't pose for the picture, we could never get released. We felt terrible being forced to take our picture with Castro.'' The incident has drawn the attention of U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, who issued a statement saying her office will not tolerate the abuse of migrants and ordered an investigation.

``There is no room for abusive conduct among the ranks of our law enforcement personnel,'' Reno said. ``We take these, and all such allegations extremely seriously.''

Said Doris Meissner, Immigration and Naturalization Service director: ``We expect our employees to protect the rights and the dignity of individuals in our custody.''

The Office of the Inspector General, which probes complaints of misconduct against INS officers, moved into full gear early Friday.

Alan Hazen, the Inspector General's special agent in charge, said agents collected evidence from Border Patrol headquarters in Pembroke Pines, where the six rafters were taken to be fingerprinted and interviewed.

Seeking paper trail

Among the items the agents were hunting for: a paper trail identifying which officers met with the rafters and the photograph taken of them with the Castro picture.

Hazen declined to say if they found the picture.

He said the evidence gathered will be sent to the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department, where officials will evaluate the findings to determine if the rafters' civil rights were violated.

The rafters said officers at Border Patrol headquarters verbally harassed them, called them names, threatened to deport them and forced them to pose for the picture.

Border Patrol agents believe the rafters were smuggled into the United States because their skiff seemed too frail to make the turbulent trek from Cuba. The rafters say they sailed the small boat from Cuba by themselves.

The rafters released late Wednesday are, in addition to Ramos: Juan de Dios Mirabal, 30; Carlos Mirabal, 36; Carlos Hernandez Cordoba, 29; Luis Chantel Biennes Cunill, 22; and Duviel Rodriguez del Rio, 17.

Picture taking

Rodriguez said officers at the Border Patrol office forced the six rafters to pose together while he held a picture of Castro. An officer, he said, first wrote ``Viva Fidel'' on the bottom on the Castro photo.

Biennes and Ramos said the officer who took the picture is the same man who drove them from Pembroke Pines to the detention center. Ramos said the officer snapped the picture just as the group was about to leave.

``If I see him again, I will know him,'' Biennes said, describing the officer as a dark-skinned Hispanic, in his 40s, with a medium build.

``He was not tall and not short,'' Biennes said. ``He spoke the Spanish language very well.''

``If I see him, I'll recognize him,'' said Ramos, adding that no investigators have come to see him.

Biennes said the rafters saw the officer at Krome right before they were released, but kept quiet until they were out.

``We saw him through the glass. We said to ourselves, `Look! There is the guy that took that photo.' But we didn't want to say anything. We didn't want to jeopardize our case,'' Biennes said.

Two agencies probed

Friday's announcement means that two federal agencies are now under investigation for the very-public handling of the Cuban rafters. The Coast Guard's treatment of the rafters is being reviewed after television cameras captured officers dousing the rafters with a fire hose and pepper spray.

The incident prompted Cuban exiles and other supporters to shut down MacArthur Causeway across from the Miami Beach Coast Guard base at rush hour, leaving motorists stranded and fuming. Another demonstration about the Surfside incident is planned for noon today in Little Havana.

Friday afternoon, the Cuban American National Foundation called on Congress to push for its own independent investigation. The foundation also asked Congress to subpoena the now-infamous group portrait with Fidel Castro.

``This issue is not going to go away,'' said foundation spokesman Fernando Rojas.

Also contributing to this story were Herald staff writers Elaine de Valle, Carol Rosenberg, and Andres Viglucci.

e-mail: magarcia@herald.com