Leadership Quote by Mike Fitzpatrick

The sting here is in the gap between competence theater and operational reality. Fitzpatrick’s sentence reads like a calm briefing, but its real work is political: it converts an abstract worry about border security into a quantifiable vulnerability. The phrase “analyzes cargo and other information” nods to modern, data-driven governance while quietly conceding its limits; analytics can “target,” but they can’t touch most of what moves. That “still” is doing heavy lifting, signaling that even after the sophisticated systems and post-9/11 investments, the baseline fact remains: the physical chokepoint is porous by scale alone.

“Only a small fraction” is an intentionally bland indictment. It avoids sensational claims about what’s getting through, yet invites the listener to supply their own nightmare scenario - weapons, fentanyl precursors, counterfeit goods, labor abuses - depending on what politics they already carry. Fitzpatrick’s subtext isn’t that CBP is negligent; it’s that the public’s mental model (borders as gates you can meaningfully check) doesn’t match the logistics of global trade (borders as torrents). That mismatch is useful for a politician because it justifies almost any policy lever: more funding, more staffing, new scanning technology, tighter trade rules, or sharper penalties.

Context matters: CBP’s container problem is a math problem. When commerce is the national bloodstream, comprehensive inspection becomes synonymous with slowdown. Fitzpatrick’s line sits right on that fault line, framing security not as a moral failing, but as a structural constraint that voters can be asked to underwrite - or accept as risk.