There are many reasons that the family may start the day at 4am, the main reason being that it can easily take three hours to cross the border.
The story may be somewhat misleading, as well.
It would not be surprising for the family to have gotten into the car line to cross the border at 4am (like every other morning) and then realize at 7:30 am that it was taking longer than usual and the kids are going to be late to school. So, mom drops the kids off where they can pop over to Chaparral (aka PedWest) which would take a minimum of 30 minutes to cross at that hour. Then the kids could catch an Uber over by the outlet store mall that’s right next to PedWest on the US side.
