You are missing the relationship between action maps and input maps.
The InputMap ties a particular key sequence to an action identifier.
This action identifier is used to look up the appropriate action in the
ActionMap.  Making changes to the InputMap won't affect the ActionMap if
the specified action identifier doesn't exist.  By default, there is no
action assigned to ENTER or ESC in the ActionMap of a JTextField.  As a
result, adding/reassigning items to/in the InputMap for ENTER or ESC
will have no affect on the application.

Here's a small example which prints a message to stdout when the ENTER
or ESC is pressed while in a JTextField:

import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.KeyEvent;

import javax.swing.AbstractAction;
import javax.swing.ActionMap;
import javax.swing.InputMap;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JTextField;
import javax.swing.KeyStroke;

public class TFTest {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        JFrame f = new JFrame();
        f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        JTextField tf = new JTextField(20);

        InputMap im = tf.getInputMap();
        im.put(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_ENTER, 0), "enter");
        im.put(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_ESCAPE, 0), "escape");
       
        ActionMap am = tf.getActionMap();
        am.put("enter", new AbstractAction() {
                public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae) {
                    System.out.println("ENTER pressed");
                }
        });
       
        am.put("escape", new AbstractAction() {
                public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae) {
                    System.out.println("ESC pressed");
                }
        });
       
        f.getContentPane().add(tf);
        f.pack();
        f.setVisible(true);
    }
}

Jim S.