Illegal Alien Identified As Wrong-Way Driver in Fatal Crash That Killed LVMPD Officer

A report from the Las Vegas Review-Journal has finally confirmed that Fernando Jimenez-Jimenez of “unknown residence” was in the country illegally when he killed Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Officer Colton Pulsipher in a head-on crash on Interstate 15 on December 12.  Jimenez, a Mexican national, entered the country illegally in 2019, was deported by the Trump Administration, returned illegally, and was ordered for deportation in 2021.

Officials ID’d the driver as 31yo Fernando Jimenez-Jimenez whose residence was unknown and killed @LVMPD Colton Pulsipher, a young father of three.

How is Fernando’s address unknown?

No drivers license?

No registered plates?

Stay tuned.

https://t.co/D0G58MjGAM

— Nevada Globe (@NevadaGlobe) December 23, 2024

The RJ reports:

The wrong-way driver who killed a Metropolitan police Department officer in a head-on crash earlier this month was in the country illegally, according to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson.

An immigration judge in Texas judge issued a removal order against Fernando Jimenez-Jimenez in 2021, according to ICE.

Jimenez-Jimenez, 31, also died in the Dec. 12 crash when the Ford F150 he was driving south in the northbound lanes of Interstate 15 crashed head-on into a Toyota Corolla driven by Metropolitan Police Department officer Colton Pulsipher, 29, of Moapa.

Accident investigators reported finding several containers of alcohol and marijuana in the F150, according to the Nevada Highway Patrol. Results of toxicology reports are still pending.

ICE said Jimenez-Jimenez was a citizen of Mexico and had entered the U.S. in 2019 before being “returned to Mexico on an order of expedited removal,” an ICE spokesperson said.

He then applied for admission to the U.S. with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Brownsville, Texas, in January 2020 before an immigration judge ordered he be removed in Dec. 2021, according to ICE.

Both Jimenez and Pulsipher were pronounced dead on the scene. Pulsifpher was married and the father of three children. A fundraiser for the family notes that “contributions will assist with immediate expenses and provide financial relief as they navigate this heartbreaking new chapter,” according to the website.

According to reports, Nevada is a potential site for expanded immigration detention facilities, according to documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The documents reveal ICE’s search for facilities to house noncitizens and immigration violators as part of its public safety mission under the incoming Trump administration. The ACLU has referred to ICE’s plan as “dangerous and detrimental.” According to estimates, 175,000 illegal immigrants reside in the Silver State.

Earlier this month, Governor Joe Lombardo  aligned with 26 Republican governors to unite behind President Trump’s mass deportation policy which primarily targets illegal immigrants who pose a threat to American communities and national security.

In a joint statement, the governors expressed their commitment to “deport dangerous criminals, gang members, and terrorists who are in the country illegally.”

Every resident of Nevada has basic rights that protect you when you have contact with law enforcement, regardless of your citizenship or immigration status—including undocumented immigrants. Learn more about your rights as a Nevada resident at https://t.co/plt4D6ZbxF. pic.twitter.com/o4b7xTzMAz

— NV Attorney General (@NevadaAG) November 27, 2024

Attorney General Aaron Ford (D). who recently announced his 2026 bid for Nevada governor, warned: “We will be a bulwark against any effort to impose unconstitutional mandates, override our system of checks and balances, or intrude upon the rights of any Nevada resident…There is no one way to be a Nevadan. The residents of our great state –whether they’ve been here for 3 weeks or are third-generation Nevadans.”

In 2021, Ford joined a coalition of 16 attorneys general fighting alongside President Biden to pause deportations pending the Administration’s review of policies. On the first day of the Biden-Harris Administration, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a memo ordering a moratorium on deportations for 100 days while a thorough review of the DHS’s polices took place.