CBP CAPE UPDATE: IEEPA REFUND PROCESSING DATA DEFINES FIRST-WEEK VALIDATION AND LIQUIDATION ACTIVITY IN ACE

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released the first operational data following the April 20, 2026, deployment of the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) platform. The update confirms that entries are now progressing through validation, liquidation, and into early refund processing. It does not change the Phase 1 scope or structure. Instead, it defines the volume that has moved through each stage during the first week of live operation.

CAPE went live in the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) at 7:11 a.m. Eastern on April 20, 2026. That same day, ACE recorded a 70 percent increase in log-ins compared to its previous daily record, reflecting immediate system use. By 8:00 p.m. Eastern on April 26, importers and brokers had submitted 75,306 CAPE declarations. Of those submissions, 47,315 passed file-level validation and advanced into entry-level review.

From those validated submissions, CAPE evaluated entry-level eligibility. CBP confirmed that 11,222,927 entries passed entry-specific validation and qualified for removal of IEEPA duties.

At the same time, 2,124,394 entries within those same filings failed entry-level validation and did not move forward in processing. This split reflects how CAPE applies validation at both the submission and entry level before advancing entries to recalculation and liquidation.

Once entries pass validation, CAPE advances them into recalculation and liquidation sequencing. As of April 26, CBP reported that approximately 1,740,000 entries had already been liquidated and entered the refund process. This progression shows that accepted entries are moving beyond validation and into standard refund processing under Phase 1.

Despite the volume of submissions and increased system activity, CBP reported that CAPE has operated as intended since launch. The only interruption occurred on April 20, when submission capability paused for approximately 18 minutes while system resources were adjusted to support processing demand. No changes to eligibility, timelines, or Phase 1 functionality were included in this update. The data instead establishes a baseline for system performance and processing progression as CAPE continues to operate.