Refugees were referred to as migrants. The Trump administration capitalized heavily on the refugee crisis. Breitbart, owned by Steve Bannon, was Trump's strategic advisor and often pushed fake news, also had a hand in brexit.

There's a lot more backhanded/rhetorical stuff that could be mistaken for liberal stupidity/lack of self awareness. Like 'The new Europeans' 'refugees welcome' 'But the food!' etc. but that's much harder to explain.

It's also the reason we don't care that much about China. The refugee camps on the coast of Lybia were far worse anything that China was doing to Uyghurs. China has a large American media campaign against it which just comes across as forced, and given what we went through makes us more sympathetic towards China.