CBP Delays the Next Phase of IEEPA Refunds — Here's What It Means If Your Entries Are "Finally Liquidated"

Just as some importers were starting to see IEEPA refund money hit their bank accounts, U.S. Customs and Border Protection told a federal court it's hitting pause on the next expansion of the system. On August 25, 2026, Brandon Lord, CBP's Executive Director of Trade Programs, filed a declaration with the Court of International Trade confirming that CBP has "temporarily delayed" rolling out an update to its Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) tool — the update that would have let importers seek repayment on shipments more than 90 days past the end of the liquidation process. For importers still waiting on refunds tied to entries that are already finally liquidated, this is the update to watch.

What CBP Actually Told the Court

CAPE has been rolling out in phases inside the ACE Secure Data Portal since April 2026. Phase 1 covers the easy cases — unliquidated entries and those still inside the 90-day voluntary reliquidation window. That's roughly 63% of affected entries. The harder cases are entries that have already been finally liquidated and sit outside that 90-day window. Those are the ones CBP was building toward covering next, and those are the ones now on hold.

Lord's declaration, filed in the Freestyle World, Inc. v. United States docket at the CIT, didn't give a firm new timeline — CBP characterized the delay as temporary but didn't commit to a restart date. Trade press including Inside Trade and Law360 reported the filing on August 26, describing it as a pause on "the next portion of its system for refunds of the struck-down global tariff regime."

Why This Matters More Than It Sounds

The timing lands on top of a separate, arguably bigger problem: the Department of Justice has already told the court that CBP doesn't believe it has the statutory authority to reliquidate entries outside the 90-day voluntary window without a court order compelling it to do so. Practically, that means CAPE's future phase covering finally liquidated entries is expected to only be opened up to importers who have an active case at the CIT — not to every importer sitting on old, closed entries.

Put plainly: if your entries were finally liquidated more than 90 days ago and you paid IEEPA duties on them, the administrative refund pathway CBP has been building may never reach you unless you (or your broker, on your behalf) have already put a protest or CIT action on file. Waiting for CBP to build a broader tool and hoping it eventually covers your entries is no longer a safe assumption — it may require you to take action yourself.

This is also a reminder that the clock on customs protests doesn't stop for CBP's IT roadmap. Importers generally have 180 days from the date of liquidation to file a protest challenging the duties assessed on an entry. That deadline is fixed by statute, not by whatever phase CAPE happens to be in. An importer who lets that window close while waiting for a system update to arrive can end up with no administrative remedy left at all.

What Importers Should Do Right Now

The practical move is to stop treating CAPE as a set-and-forget process and start actively managing your entry portfolio by status:

• Pull a full entry inventory. Sort every IEEPA-affected entry by liquidation date and status — unliquidated, within the 90-day window, or finally liquidated outside it. You can't protect a deadline you can't see.
• Flag anything approaching the 180-day protest deadline. If an entry was finally liquidated and you haven't filed a protest, don't wait on CBP's system to catch up — the deadline is running regardless of what CAPE covers.
• Confirm your ACE electronic refund setup is current. Refunds are processed electronically only; missing or outdated ACH information on file with CBP will bounce a refund even after it's approved.
• Talk to your broker about which entries may need a CIT filing. If DOJ's position holds, finally liquidated entries outside the 90-day window may only get relief through litigation rather than through CAPE directly. That's a decision worth making with real numbers in front of you, not after the deadline passes.

Guy Lichtenstein CHB Corp files entries and monitors CBP guidance for importers moving cargo through ports nationwide — not just Miami. If you're not sure where your entries stand on liquidation status, protest deadlines, or CAPE eligibility, that's exactly the kind of review our team can run for you before a deadline becomes a problem.