Protesters sit chained together blocking the road in front of the federal Northwest Detention Center in the Tacoma Tideflats on Monday, Feb 24, 2014. Joe Barrentine/The News Tribune/AP Photo

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has confirmed that at least 550 detainees at the Northwest Detention Center in Washington state have launched a hunger strike.

The detainees, who have been refusing to eat since Friday, are demanding better food, safer working conditions and for President Barack Obama to sign an executive order ending deportations, according to Maru Mora Villalpando, founder of Latino Advocacy.

The hunger strikers, Villalpando said, are part of a growing, nationwide campaign against the U.S. immigration policy. Villalpando put the number of hunger strikers at 1,200, more than twice what ICE reported to Al Jazeera.

The strike is expected to last through Tuesday, Villalpando said.

The center, which is run by the private correctional services company GEO Group, currently houses 1,300 people being investigated for possible deportation.

ICE told Al Jazeera that hunger strikers are under continuous observation by detention center staff and medical personnel: “ICE fully respects the rights of all people to express their opinion without interference."

Villalpando, whose group organized protests outside the detention facility last month, told Al Jazeera that protesters began the strike on a Friday because that is when guards segregate those who will be deported on Monday morning from those who remain in detention.

Hunger strikers at the facility were inspired to fast after witnessing protesters outside the gates of the detention center block deportation vans from exiting, Villalpando said.

Solidarity actions outside the center are being planned in tandem with the hunger strikes. "People will be coming every day from noon to 4 p.m. until Tuesday to show their support with the 1,200 immigrants," Villalpando said.

Villalpando accused GEO Group of exploiting detainees at the facility by paying them $1 a day for performing services that include working in the kitchen and janitorial work.

“It's just ironic that the government is detaining people for working without a social security number; meanwhile, they allow this company to exploit their labor,” said Villalpando.

GEO, which calls itself the world’s leading provider of correctional and detention services, lobbied Congress last year on immigration reform, standing against alternatives to detention, according to The Nation.

GEO did not respond to requests for comment.