Chicago Travel Site

I want to visit this friend of mine in WA state during my spring break. It may take me a while to get there, because I have various options: I can do early morning flight and have a stop in TX, then be in WA in 2 hours time, but my friend cannot manage to meet me there at the Seatac airport at that time, so my only other option is to go to the airport and such sometime in the morning so I can get to my flight that departs 15 till 1 PM and arrives in Chicago at 2:35, and then I have a 50 minute layover, and my flight from Chicago to Seattle departs at 3:25 PM, and I arrive in WA at 6:12 PM. Now I know all the details and such, but what more? I’m not taking more than one suitcase, can I just use that one I take as a carry-on?

I wanted to ask this ahead of time so I can know what to plan in the future.

If you go to a border town like El Paso, you will see thousands of Mexican citizens crossing into the U.S. every day to shop, visit relatives, go on vacation or whatever. So why do people risk their lives swimming the Rio Grande, crossing deserts, or packing into 18 wheelers when they could just drive their car or take a taxi, bus or train across the bridge? They could say that they are going on vacation to Disneyworld or visiting realtives in Chicago.
OK, I did some research and there is a lot of wrong information in this thread. First of all, a visa to the US costs $131 (see here http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/types_1263.html). Second, the wait time for a visa from the Mexico City consular is currently 9 days (see here http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/temp/wait/tempvisitors_wait_result.php?post=Mexico+Cityx=56y=16). The point about criminals not being able to get a visa is a valid one though there are plenty of women/children and non-criminals sneaking across.