MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The family of a man who was taken away from his home by ICE agents says they hope to get him back home soon, but know it may be a long process.

The last time 42-year-old Jerardo Granados’ family saw him, he was being detained by Immigration agents outside his Bartlett home on Tuesday morning.

His son Edgar says communicating with his dad has been hard.

“One time. He called my mother one time to let her know that he’s been detained,” he said. “And then we received a couple of series of calls at random times at night. So we’ve been on the phone attached day and night.”

The family says Jerardo has been taken to a prison in Louisiana. WREG has reported on the process immigrants are facing during a federal crackdown.

People arrested in Memphis are temporarily taken to the ICE office near the airport, then moved to places like Louisiana that have bed space. But Edgar says that too is a problem.

“He’s in a correctional center. He’s not even at the detention center because they’re just taking so many people, and they’ve expanded their system so much now they’re putting them in prisons,” Edgar said. “My dad said yesterday they were not exaggerating. They have all of them on the floor on concrete. They’re treating my father like he committed the worst crime.”

The family is working on hiring an attorney to begin the bail process. Attorneys say bail could be from $5,000 to $10,000, and during a hearing in about a week, they would have to show Jerardo isn’t a flight risk or danger to the community.

Then begins his fight to stay in the country, a long and costly legal fight. It’s too much time and money for some who end up self-deporting.

“But you can hear his voice is broken. I won’t say that. It’s like fear, but there’s definitely uncertainty in his voice,” Edgar said. “And he’s also a man of faith. So he’s very he’s faithful that God will help him through it. But, you know, it doesn’t mean a man can’t get scared. He is very uncertain of what’s to come.”

They say Jerardo has been in the U.S. for 23 years and has been contributing to society.

“My father would go paint, cut grass for people who couldn’t afford it,” Edgar said. “We would have food drives at our local church, and just, you know, my father was the type of guy to help out.”

His son says efforts to go through the regular immigration process are leaving a lot of people taking desperate measures.

“Our immigration system is broken. It’s antiquated. It doesn’t adjust for people who are trying to act, who want to do the right thing, and come here. And it doesn’t make it short enough for us to either hear a yes or a no, and it’s a lot of money,” Edgar said.

But he says families being torn apart isn’t right either.

“Things like this shouldn’t just go away silently. We are people too,” he said.

Jerardo’s family says he filled out immigration papers a few months ago, like he was required to do by law, and that maybe how ICE zeroed in on him.