I am friends with and know several migrants, illegals, ICE agents, police, feds, three letter friends (hi) and the decisions of loyalty boils down to "keep ego, feed family, avoid pain".

I am not certain about the order but that's not the point.

Honest Stasi employee can't get a job anywhere else (as 90% hate Stasi) so he needs his job to feed his family. Ego says he can't leave the family. Avoiding pain is not pushing against the higher ups for fear of ego, losing family.

I often ask people once they get a promotion or find themselves bored if they were asked by their CEO/Authority "is your position necessary?" Assume the honest answer is "no". They say yes: they lose their title, power, income, stability, while maintaining almost zero upside other than "the right thing was done".