He graduated from a Catholic military high school in Washington and attended Xavier University in Ohio for one year studying accounting.

[10] In 2017, Hodgson offered to send detainees from Bristol County as forced laborers to build President Donald J. Trump's proposed border wall.

[13] On August 7, 2019, Hodgson sent an email to Trump adviser, Stephen Miller, reporting that his church, St. Julie's Billiart Parish in Dartmouth, MA, was providing information to immigrants regarding their legal rights:[14] "Stephen, thought you might like to see samples of cards I discovered in a holder at the back of St. Julie's Church in Dartmouth, MA."

"[19] The ACLU of Massachusetts sued the Bristol County Sheriff's Office after being denied access to records related to the incident.

[20] A Massachusetts Attorney General report concluded in December 2020 that Sheriff Hodgson violated the civil rights of the detainees by using excessive force and recommended the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) terminate its contract between Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Bristol County.

[23] Following the release of the Attorney General's report, the Department of Homeland Security terminated its 287(g) contract with the Bristol County Sheriff's Office.

[25] In October 2022, Adam Howe, a 34-year-old man from Truro, killed himself in an Ash Street Jail cell while awaiting trial for the murder of his mother.

'"[30][29] Hodgson denied the allegations, stating that the inmates were being used by lawyers to further a political agenda of regulating solitary confinement more closely.

[34] In Thomas Hodgson's official Bristol County Sheriff portrait from 2003, he is wearing a tie that resembles the Confederate flag.

[39] In August 2017, Hodgson was photographed at New Bedford's Feast of the Blessed Sacrament holding a cup of Madeira wine and carrying a firearm while wearing a Bristol County Sheriff's Office shirt.