Depending on how one says, “pea-can” or “puh-cahn,” it’s easy for natives to tell if the person speaking is a Texan or not. The little nut packed with nutrients and properly pronounced “puh-cahn,” as natives will tell you, bears great significance to the Lone Star State.

The pecan tree was first discovered in what is now the southernmost part of El Paso County, Texas. The only tree nut native to the United States, it’s the state tree of Texas. Pecans are also the Texas health nut and pecan pie is the official state pie.

A multi-generational group of families in the El Paso Valley who’ve committed their whole lives to growing the state nut say their lives, livelihood and way of life are in jeopardy because of heavy foot traffic and crime coming from the border since the administration of President Joe Biden began.

“The only reason I sleep at night is the Trump wall and the Second Amendment,” Jennifer Ivey, the wife of a pecan farmer and Republican Party precinct chair, told The Center Square in an exclusive interview during a visit to one of the family groves.