A mural depicting the Statue of Liberty covering her face in shame appeared on a building in Northern France over Independence Day weekend and quickly garnered millions of views on social media. “The Statue of Liberty’s Silent Protest,” by Dutch street artist Judith de Leeuw, was unveiled on July 4 in the city of Roubaix just as President Trump geared up to sign his so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” which includes sweeping cuts to programs like Medicaid.Reached by email, de Leeuw told Hyperallergic that the mural reflects her concern for the United States’s cruel immigration policies and a “fragile friendship” between the country and the European Union, which is also embodied in the original statue. Arriving in the New York Harbor in 1885 from France, the Statue of Liberty was conceived two decades earlier to mark the upcoming centennial of the US Declaration of Independence in a gesture of friendship. France commissioned the monument using public funds, and the pedestal was constructed in the US after a successful fundraising drive. Approaching the 250th anniversary of the document’s signing, de Leeuw’s mural questions whether the liberties enshrined in the monument still exist today.De Leeuw described watching a news story reported by Dutch media about an immigrant “being torn from his home in the US, while his child stood frozen in the doorway.” The artist said her inclination was to create an artwork in response.“It shattered me,” de Leeuw said in a statement shared with Hyperallergic. “I cannot witness this kind of injustice without responding.” The work is permanent, she said, and was created in collaboration with the URBX Festival in Roubaix and the mural artist collective Collectif Renart. Earlier this year, the White House rebuked a French politician’s symbolic call for the return of the Statue of Liberty in response to the Trump administration’s rollbacks to scientific research. Since the work went viral over the weekend, de Leeuw told Hyperallergic that she received a notification that her Instagram account — where she first posted the mural — could be at risk of being taken down. Though the app didn’t provide a reason for her account review, de Leeuw suspects it could have something to do with the mural’s political implications. (Hyperallergic contacted Meta for comment.)“I can only speculate, but I understand that when an artist reaches 35 million people, it might become interesting to try and silence them,” de Leeuw told Hyperallergic. The artist has also received trolling comments from Trump supporters, and conservative content creators denounced the work as disrespectful across platforms. “I stand by what I’ve done,” de Leeuw said. “In a world that feels increasingly unjust, I believe activism is not a choice, but a duty.”