NEWPORT NEWS --  A British immigrant in the U.S. for 25 years is facing deportation.

Daniel Bowman sits in jail for what he calls a bad mistake he made in May 1994, when he, at age 20, and another man stole a car radio from a woman in Newport News.

He pleaded guilty, served five years probation, and has not been in trouble since.

But his past came back to haunt the 35-year-old on July 30, when he tried to renew his green card. After an hour wait, an officer took him away in handcuffs.

Video: British immigrant faces deportation for crime 14 years ago

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"I just couldn't believe it. I thought okay, maybe they're just trying to shake me up, maybe there is a mix-up in the paperwork," he first thought. “He said I was convicted of a felony in 1994, which is grounds for deportation.”

Bowman was seven in 1980 when he came here from Liverpool, England. His son is six years old and he says he has a hard time explaining why he's behind bars.

Now, he waits for immigration officials to decide what will happen next.

“I’ve worked 12 years, steady job, just trying to do provide for my family and do the right thing. This is a shock to me. I never thought in a million years I'd end up like this,” he adds.

His lawyer says there’s such a backlog of cases that Bowman could wait up to a year before he’s seen by a judge.

“If I can't get out of jail, there's no point in me staying in here for a year to fight a case,” he notes.

His wife and son would like go with him, but they'd leave a lot of family behind.

Immigration officials said it could be months before a judge hears Bowman's case. A spokesman confirms that grand larceny is a deportable offense with no statute of limitartions. He says Bowman likely slipped through the cracks all these years.