Michael Borrego had been sleeping in one of the chain-link cages in Alligator Alcatraz when he woke up in a pool of his own blood.

Mr Borrego, a Cuban national who lived in South Florida, suffered from a chronic health issue before his incarceration, which was exacerbated by the notorious detention centre’s filthy conditions almost immediately, his lawyer told The Telegraph.

He was said to have been rushed to hospital before being sent back and now lives in fear of developing another infection.

Since it opened earlier this month, Alligator Alcatraz has become the symbol of the Trump administration’s uncompromising attitude on immigration enforcement.

Hundreds of people have been rounded up and sent to the makeshift encampment in the Florida Everglades, which is surrounded by swamps and alligator-infested waters.

But the real horror, some say, is what is inside the centre, where inmates have described being cooped up like “chickens in cages”, eaten alive by mosquitoes, and living in quarters awash with human waste and filth.