Can Catholics participate in a regime or administration that lies to protect its people?

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St. Vincent Ferrer, following Gratian's Decretals (an early corpus iuris canonici, "body of canon law"), defended the notion of simulated authority.

Philip Daileader, Saint Vincent Ferrer, His World and Life, p. 22:

Vincent also cited the Decretum in defense of the cardinals who, rather than allowing themselves to be killed, had elected Urban [during the Great Western "Schism"] and pretended to be happy to do so when in truth they were deathly afraid; as the Decretum says, there was biblical precedent for “useful simulation.” [Tractatus de moderno ecclesie scismate, 36, 69.]

Tractatus, 69 cites the biblical evidence given in Gratian's Decretals:

Gratian's Decretals, Second Part, Cause XXII, question II, ch. 21, col. 873: Likewise St. Jerome. [Commentary on Galatians 2:11-13], pp. 106-7.]:

For another example of how temporary deception can be expedient, let us consider Jehu, the king of Israel. He would not have been able to kill the priests of Baal unless he had feigned a desire to worship this false god, and he said, “Assemble all the priests of Baal for me, for Ahab served Baal in a few respects, I shall serve him in many.” [2 Kgs 10.18-19.] Another example is when David altered his appearance, pretending to be somebody else in Abimelech’s presence, and Abimelech dismissed him. [Cf. 1 Sm 21.13.] That even very righteous men resort to temporary dissimulation for the sake of their own or others’ salvation is not surprising when we recall that our Lord himself, who was free of iniquity and whose flesh was not sinful, pretended to take on sinful flesh so that by condemning sin in his flesh he might make us the righteousness of God.
Decretum Gratiani, Secunda Pars, Causa XXII, questio II, c. 21, col. 873 : Item Ieronimus. [in epist. ad Galatas, c. 2.] : Utilem simulationem et in tempore assumendam, Ieu regis Israel nos doceat exemplum, qui, cum non potuisset interficere sacerdotes Baal, nisi finxisset se idolum velle colere, dicens: "Congregate mihi omnes sacerdotes Baal. Achab servivit ei in paucis, ego serviam sibi in multis." Et David, quando mutavit faciem suam coram Abimelech, et dimisit eum, et abiit. Nec mirum quamvis iustos homines tamen aliqua simulare pro tempore ob suam et aliorum salutem, cum et ipse Dominus noster, non habens peccatum, nec carnem peccati, simulationem peccatricis carnis assumpsit, ut, condemnans, in carne peccatum, nos in se faceret iustitiam Dei.

Gal. 2:11-13:

But when Cephas was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that some came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them who were of the circumcision. And to his dissimulation the rest of the Jews consented: so that Barnabas also was led by them into that dissimulation.

Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas's commentary on this.

Dissimulation is "a lie told by the signs of outward deeds" (Summa Theologica II-II q. 111 a. 1 co.).

For how Abraham saying Sarah was his sister, Jacob saying he was Esau, and Judith deceiving Holofernes to kill him were not really lies, see Summa Theologica II-II q. 110 a. 3 "Whether every lie is a sin?" arg./ad 3: Abraham "wished to hide the truth, not to tell a lie, for she is called his sister since she was the daughter of his father"; "Jacob's assertion […] was spoken in a mystical sense"; Judith's "words contain truth in some mystical sense."

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