Penn Relays are an illegal route to the U.S. for some Jamaican runners

By Michael Matza

Inquirer Staff Writer

Signs of Jamaica abound at the Penn Relays, the 116-year-old track-and-field festival held each April in Philadelphia.

Food carts sizzle with jerk chicken. Fans sporting the green, yellow, and black of the Caribbean nation's flag sit together at the University of Pennsylvania's Franklin Field, and roar.

Each year about 40 teams are drawn from more than two dozen Jamaican high schools, with an additional four to six club teams composed of older runners.

Now, however, it seems that some Jamaicans who applied for visas to compete in the Relays in years past were "mala fide applicants . . . disguising themselves as student athletes" in order to immigrate illegally, according to a 2008 cable to the State Department from the U.S. Embassy in Jamaica's capital, Kingston. The cable was unearthed by WikiLeaks in late May and later flagged in the Philadelphia blog "Phawker."