A mural by a Dutch artist on a building in northern France depicting Lady Liberty with her hands covering her face has sparked controversy in the U.S., given its timing with the 249^th anniversary of the nation's founding.

The mural by street artist Judith de Leeuw in Roubaix, France, about 146 miles north of Paris near the Belgian border, depicts the Statue of Liberty with her hands covering her face. De Leeuw said the mural, titled "The Statue of Liberty's Silent Protest," is a response to President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration in the U.S.

"Roubaix has a large migrant population, and many of them live in extremely difficult circumstances," de Leeuw told Storyful, according to the Hindustan Times. "The values that the statue once stood for — freedom, hope, the right to be yourself — have been lost for many."

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and an ardent Trump supporter, expressed outrage over the mural in a post on X.

"This disgusts me," Burchett wrote, posting a video from USA Today that showed the mural with comments from de Leeuw's interview with Storyful. "If any country ought to be kissing our a** it's France. My Uncle Roy fought and died and is buried there for their freedom."

France gifted the Statue of Liberty to the U.S. in 1886. The statue stands on Liberty Island in New York near Ellis Island, which was a stop for immigrants making their way to New York in the 19th and 20th centuries.

De Leeuw told Storyful the mural took six days to finish and called the date of its completion — Independence Day in the U.S. — a "meaningful coincidence."

In a post on Instagram, de Leeuw said the Statue of Liberty was a "celebration of friendship and given in the name of Independence Day — a day meant to honor the right to freedom for all."

"But today, that freedom feels out of reach," she said, according to Raw Story. "Not for everyone. Not for migrants. Not for those pushed to the margins, silenced, or unseen. In Roubaix — a city with one of France's largest migrant populations — I painted her covering her eyes because the weight of the world has become too heavy to witness.

"What was once a shining symbol of liberty now carries the sorrow of lost meaning. The project was finished on July 4 — Independence Day. A quiet reminder of what freedom should be."

In March, Raphael Glucksmann, a member of France's Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, proposed reclaiming the Statue of Liberty. It led to a scathing response by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who told reporters the U.S. will "absolutely not" be returning the statue.

"My advice to that unnamed low-level French politician would be to remind them that it is only because of the United States of America that the French are not speaking German," Leavitt said.

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