CBP's CAPE portal opened in late April 2026 to process $166 billion in IEEPA tariff refunds, but importers must also navigate a separate Section 122 track to preserve claims.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection launched Phase 1 of its Customs Automated Processing Engine portal in late April 2026 to begin processing refunds for approximately $166 billion in tariffs collected under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, after the Supreme Court struck down the underlying tariff authority in February 2026 [1]. The CAPE portal represents CBP's primary administrative mechanism for returning funds to importers who paid duties the Court determined were unauthorized [1]. A substantial number of entries have been accepted for processing under the initial rollout, though a subset has been rejected due to entry-specific validation failures requiring correction before those claims can advance [1].
The refund effort flows from a Supreme Court ruling that invalidated the IEEPA tariff regime, placing the case within the jurisdiction of the U.S. Court of International Trade [1]. A closed status conference convened on May 12 to review CBP's progress with the CAPE portal and assess the pace of refund processing across the affected entry population [1]. Phase 1 of the portal covers approximately 82% of all IEEPA tariff entries, leaving a remaining tranche of entries to be addressed in subsequent phases [1].
The compliance stakes extend beyond the CAPE portal itself. Importers face a concurrent obligation to preserve refund rights under a separate Section 122 track, which the Court of International Trade has found imposes distinct procedural requirements [1]. The two tracks operate in parallel, meaning that a filing accepted under the CAPE process does not automatically satisfy the Section 122 preservation requirement, and importers that fail to navigate both systems risk forfeiting refund claims on entries that might otherwise qualify [1]. At the volume involved, the dollar exposure from procedural missteps is significant.
What comes next is a phased expansion of the CAPE portal to cover the remaining 18% of IEEPA entries not included in Phase 1, alongside continued judicial oversight through the Court of International Trade [1]. Importers with rejected entries must address validation failures and resubmit, while also monitoring developments in the Section 122 track [1]. Given the scale of the refund program and the dual-track compliance structure, practitioners are treating the coming weeks as a critical window for preserving client rights before administrative deadlines solidify.